Palmdale Survives, 54-40, Despite Charity to a Fault

Don’t try figuring out the Palmdale High girls’ basketball team.

The Falcons, facing Washington in the first round of the Southern California Regional tournament Tuesday at Cal State Dominguez Hills, played bad enough to lose.

But the Falcons beat the Generals, 54-40, despite 28 turnovers.

Palmdale, ranked No. 2 in the region by The Times, will play at No. 1 Buena on Thursday.

Funny how the ball bounces sometimes. Last Saturday, Palmdale outshot and outrebounded Peninsula in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship game and lost by two.

“I don’t know what it was, but we played horrible [against Peninsula],” said guard Edniesha Curry, who had 13 points and made six of eight free throws in the final 1 minute 16 seconds. “People were saying, ‘That’s Palmdale?’ ”

Well, will the real Palmdale please stand up?

The Falcons (29-3) shot an impressive 47% from the field, including a blazing 72% in the second half. But they took only 11 shots while turning over the ball 15 times.

Turnovers felled the Falcons in a 36-32 defeat three days earlier. Oddly, 15 of the 17 turnovers against Peninsula were passing mistakes. Against Washington, only two of 28 turnovers came on passes. Palmdale was called for traveling 10 times.

“We actually got fouled on maybe eight of them,” Palmdale Coach George Corisis said. “And they could have swept the floor before the game.”

The Falcons slid, but this time they didn’t let opportunity slip away.

It wasn’t easy. Washington (23-5), the City Section 4-A champion, ran a full-court press the entire game. The Generals went for steals on every Palmdale possession and earned jump balls on nearly a third of the Falcons’ rebounds.

Washington also coaxed Kristi Rose, Palmdale’s best player, into her fourth foul 2:18 into the third quarter.

But Rose got better when adversity came knocking. She scored 10 of her game-high 20 points and had seven of her 11 rebounds while playing with four fouls.

After the Generals cut a nine-point Palmdale lead to two, 34-32, early in the fourth quarter, Rose made three consecutive baskets to regain the momentum.

Rose hit a 10-foot jump shot, a 15-footer and a layup to make it 40-32.

Washington, which shot only 26% and committed 18 turnovers, wasn’t allowed back into the game as Palmdale made 13 of 16 free throws and had no turnovers in the final two minutes.

Monique Nolan added nine points for Palmdale and Marje Knott had seven points and seven rebounds.