Chatsworth Opens Gate to Semifinals

The high-flying Chatsworth High girls’ basketball team defeated South Gate, 44-39, in a City quarterfinal girls’ basketball playoff game Wednesday night at South Gate.

No. 5-seeded Chatsworth (20-5) plays top-seeded Narbonne in a semifinal game Saturday at L.A. Southwest College.

No. 4-seeded South Gate (18-5) pulled even in the final minutes before the Chancellors scored the last five points of the game.

“We wanted this so bad and we pulled it through,” said guard Ashley Shelton of Chatsworth, who scored eight of her 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Shelton’s three-point play broke a 39-39 tie with 30 seconds to play and her two free throws secured the victory with eight seconds left.

Chatsworth snapped an 11-game winning streak by the Rams, who went unbeaten in the Eastern League and made a furious run at Chatsworth over the final 12 minutes.

Although no one could tell by the end, Chatsworth, which lost to South Gate, 41-39, in the second game of the season, got an early jump this time.

Patient passing on the perimeter and a frenetic full-court press paid off for the Chancellors.

Liz Sun was everywhere for Chatsworth, scoring six points, grabbing nine rebounds, making five steals and blocking a shot in the first half.

That helped Chatsworth twice build nine-point leads.

Sun finished with 11 points, 16 rebounds and six steals.

The advantage grew to 31-15 with four minutes to play in the third quarter before South Gate got going.

Crystal Maciel scored 17 points for the Rams and Carolina Rangel had seven of her nine in a 4 1/2-minute span of the fourth quarter.

Rangel’s fall-away three-point jumper with 2:55 left pulled South Gate to within 37-36. After an outside shot by Alice Elias gave Chatsworth a 39-36 edge, Lucinda Perez of South Gate hit a three-pointer to tie, 39-39.

“Oh, wow,” Sun said. “It was scary. I was nervous, but we wanted to win this so bad.”

Narbonne 85, Grant 47--Kathleen Mallon scored 18 points and Krystal Clay 13, but the Lancers (20-7) committed 33 turnovers against the top-seeded Gauchos (28-0), ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, in a City Championship quarterfinal game at Narbonne.

INVITATIONAL DIVISION

Dorsey 53, Birmingham 46--Octavia Askew had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but the Patriots were outscored, 9-2, in the final four minutes of the quarterfinal game at Birmingham.

Ofalangi Mailangi scored 13 points for Birmingham (10-12), which tied the score, 44-44, midway through the fourth quarter.

Tanisha Burwick had 20 points for Dorsey.