Lynwood Has Perfect Finish

The public-address announcer was incorrect. So was the game program.

But Lynwood knew the facts. The Knights were 33-0--not 32-0--after defeating Sacramento Kennedy, 74-55, in the state Division I girls’ basketball championship Saturday at Arco Arena.

After all, it’s hard to mistake perfection, which has defined Lynwood’s season. Andrea Adams scored 20 points and Lynwood, recognized as the No. 1 team in the nation, won its first state title since 1993.

“I remember when I walked in a classroom [before the season] and told the girls it’d be a special season,” Coach Ellis Barfield said. “It seems like just yesterday. Look at us now.”

It was an especially meaningful victory for senior Janice Bright, whose father, Robert Lee Bright, died Monday of leukemia.

“I just kept saying in my head that I was going to do it for my dad,” said Bright, who almost didn’t make the trip. “I felt like my family needed me. But this team is my family, too. It uplifted me to be here.”

Bright scored 14 points, making eight of 10 free throws.

“We rallied around her,” Barfield said. “Our hearts went out to her.”

The ending was definitely better than the beginning for Lynwood.

Lynwood trailed, 5-0, and had trouble containing Alisha Hicks, who scored 15 first-half points for Kennedy. Still, Lynwood led at halftime, 27-22, thanks to its season-long ally--balanced scoring. Three players had at least six points for the Knights at that point.

One of those players, Sade Wiley-Gatewood, fell on her wrist while driving to the basket with 2:18 left in the half. She returned within a minute. She scored 18 points on the night.

“We knew she was going to get back in,” Barfield said. “You fall down, you get back up. That’s our motto.”

It’s easy to get the feeling that Wiley-Gatewood, only a sophomore, will be part of many more playoff games before the end of her career.

“We told Coach we were going to do it for him this year,” said Wiley-Gatewood, who compared Lynwood to another team that wears purple and gold. “We’re like the Lakers. Everybody comes out and plays the Lakers hard. Now they’re losing, but we’re not going to lose.”

Lynwood put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring Kennedy, 24-15.

“It was just a matter of time,” Barfield said. “By the end of the second quarter, we knew what they were doing.”

Lynwood outrebounded Kennedy, 41-19, and had nine steals to Kennedy’s four.

Kennedy (31-5) became part of high school history last week by becoming the first team from the Sacramento City Unified School District to advance to a state championship game. In the Northern Regional championship, a 59-57 victory over San Jose Archbishop Mitty, 6-foot-1 forward Monique Smart Kidd had a team-high 19 points. Against Lynwood, she had only seven.

“They kind of took away our inside game,” Kennedy Coach Steve Matsura said.

Hicks, a sophomore guard, finished with 27 points for Kennedy.