Palmdale Plan Works, but Peninsula Wins by 2

The Palmdale High girls’ basketball team lost to top-seeded Palos Verdes Peninsula, 36-34, Saturday in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship game at the Pyramid in Long Beach.

Unseeded Palmdale (28-3) knew it had an excellent chance if it could stop the strong three-point shooting of the Panthers.

Peninsula (30-1) made only seven of 23 shots from three-point range. In fact, the Panthers could shoot no better than 25.5% from anywhere on the floor.

Palmdale shot 41.2% and out-rebounded Peninsula, 35-25, and held the Panthers scoreless for the final 5 minutes 43 seconds. Peninsula scored only two points in the fourth quarter.

But the Falcons led only twice in the first half and, after cutting a 10-point deficit with an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter, they blew their final chance to at least send the game into overtime when guard Casey Bledsoe’s pass to center Kristi Rose was stolen by Eden Palacio with 1.3 seconds left.

“We didn’t have enough patience to reverse the ball two or three times, like Peninsula did,” Palmdale Coach George Corisis said.

Forward Monique Nolan, who scored on a layup and a jump shot as Palmdale rallied from a 36-26 deficit early in the fourth quarter, had eight points.