Buena Has Answer for Lynwood

The time was right for a big run.

That’s what fans of the Lynwood High girls’ basketball team were thinking with 40 seconds left in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s opener in the Southern California Regional Division I tournament against host Buena.

With Bulldog starters Nicole Greathouse and Kelly Murray on the bench with three fouls each, the Knight faithful figured it was time to slash a 14-point deficit and make a game of it.

But Jessica Huber ruined their plans by scoring six of her nine points in the next 64 seconds to give Buena a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter of an eventual 68-40 victory.

It was the 15th victory in a row for the Bulldogs (27-2) and moved them into Thursday night’s semifinal game against visiting Narbonne, the City Section 4-A Division runner-up.

Lynwood, the Southern Section Division I-AA runner-up, trailed, 33-13, early in the third quarter but cut its deficit to 43-29 on two free throws by Wakisha Howard.

Then Huber went to work.

Her first basket came on an assist from Renae Hofmann to give Buena a 45-29 lead with 32 seconds left in the third quarter and she followed that with a putback of a Karen McAleney miss.

After Lynwood’s LaNora Truss hit a three-point basket to cut the Knights’ deficit to 47-32 early in the fourth quarter, Huber hit a short jumper from the right side to start Buena on a 11-0 run that produced a 58-32 lead with 5:07 to play.

“It’s great when people like Jessica can step in there and do that,” said Greathouse, who had 23 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. “She’s done it before this season, so we have a lot of confidence in her.”

Buena, which won its second consecutive Southern Section Division I-A title with a 59-55 victory over Crescenta Valley on Friday, never trailed against an undersized Lynwood team whose starters gave away an average of 4 1/2 inches in height to the Bulldogs.

Buena led, 11-4, after the first quarter and, 29-13, at halftime, after holding the Knights (20-12) to three-of-24 shooting.

The Bulldogs were 12 of 26 in the first half, before improving to 13 of 22 in the second.

“We basically ran a lot of plays to try and pound the ball inside,” said the 6-2 Greathouse.