Lynwood Not a Champ by Default

When the Southern Section girls’ basketball pairings were released a few weeks ago, Lynwood Coach Ellis Barfield was happy that Long Beach Poly was included, that the Jackrabbits’ 22 forfeit losses because of an administrative error wouldn’t keep the state’s third-ranked team out of the playoffs.

Barfield didn’t want someone to win a championship because the best team wasn’t included.

On Friday, the best team won the Division I-AA title.

Lynwood, seeded No. 1 by default, defeated Poly, 52-44, at Long Beach State. It marked the Knights’ fifth championship in six seasons and eighth overall. Barfield has coached in seven of them.

He watched Lenita Sanford score 15 points and pull down 10 rebounds, and Reyana Colson come off the bench for 15 more on a night that neither team played well, but Lynwood played less poorly.

It was the fifth consecutive year that Poly (7-25), the defending champion, and Lynwood (25-4) have played for the Division I-AA title.

Lynwood, ranked No. 9 in the state, held a 19-18 lead with 4 minutes 1 second left in the second quarter, but Poly went nearly five minutes without a field goal as the lead grew to 29-23. Poly never got closer than four points after that.

It wasn’t the Jackrabbits’ only stretch of futility. With the score tied at 8, Lynwood closed the first quarter with a 9-0 run over the final 2:48 as part of an 11-0 run that provided a 19-8 cushion.

“There was too much individual ball, not enough team ball,” complained Poly Coach Carl Buggs, whose team rushed through its offense on the few occasions that it actually ran one.

Jasmine Dixon scored 20 for Poly and had 13 rebounds and five steals. She was seven of 15 from the field, but her teammates were only seven of 32.

Poly had defeated Lynwood, 52-47, on Jan. 21. The difference, Barfield said, is that Colson and Jessica Lewis, who scored six, missed that game because of injuries.

Both teams will be part of next week’s Southern California Regional playoffs.

Poly forfeited 22 victories because of an ineligible player, and was in the playoffs only because the Moore League voted it the league’s fourth-place automatic qualifying berth. The Jackrabbits beat four league champions to reach the title game, including third-seeded Mira Loma Jurupa Valley and second-seeded Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda.