Girls’ basketball: Fairfax, Palisades advance to City Section Open Division final

Fairfax rallied from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Granada Hills, 68-63, in overtime on Saturday night in a City Section Open Division girls’ basketball semifinal game at Roybal.

The Lions received 30 points from Dawnyel Lair and 17 points from Fatou Semebane. It was Semebane’s basket with 13.1 seconds left in regulation that tied the game at 58-58.

Marlene Salazar had 15 points for Granada Hills.

Fairfax, the No. 1 seed, will play Western League rival Palisades in the 5 p.m. final on Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Kayla Williams scored 28 points and Chelsey Gipson had 27 points in Palisades’ 75-60 win over El Camino Real.

Fairfax Coach Judi Edwards came out of retirement for a second time to take over coaching the Lions and guided them to a 64-59 win over Palisades on Feb. 6.

She and Palisades Coach Torino Johnson were hugging on Saturday and already looking forward to the final.

“We push each other,” Edwards said

In the Division I girls’ semifinals, Western League rivals Westchester and Venice advanced to the finals.

Destiny Brown scored 24 points in Westchester’s 62-30 win over Sylmar. Venice defeated Birmingham, 59-55.

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