It’s One Up, Two Down : Oxnard’s Seniors Stand Tall

A spectacular sophomore led the Oxnard High girls’ basketball team to their improbable arrival Saturday night in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship game.

Two steady seniors took it from there.

Center Danielle Curtis and forward Nicole Black carried the Yellowjackets to a 39-37 victory over Lynwood before an estimated 2,500 at the Pyramid.

Curtis had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Black had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Each scored four points in the fourth quarter, when Oxnard (18-11), the fourth-place team from the Channel League, decided a game that had 13 lead changes.

“This is great,” Curtis said. “We worked so hard to do this. So many people underestimated us. We just had to keep going.”

Lynwood (20-11) succeeded in stopping Jaline Bradley, Oxnard’s standout sophomore guard who averages 18.8 points. Bradley was held to six points.

But the Knights couldn’t stop Curtis, who made six of 11 shots and had eight points at halftime, with the score tied, 19-19.

Then came the testimony to Oxnard’s resiliency.

The Yellowjackets made only five of 16 shots in the third quarter, missing eight layups. But they still managed a 28-27 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Two free throws by Curtis with 59 seconds left gave Oxnard a 38-34 lead. Moments later, Bradley made one of two foul shots to make the score 39-34.

Then the improbable happened. With both teams struggling to shoot 30%, Lynwood guard Leticia Hodge hit a three-point shot from the top of the key to make the score 39-37.

Oxnard turned it over when Bradley stepped out of bounds while taking the inbounds pass. But Hodge blew a layup with three seconds left and Lynwood’s Wakisha Howard missed two free throws with one second left.

Black grabbed the rebound, finally clinching victory.

“We never quit, we don’t stop until there’s no time left on the clock,” Black said.