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Senior guard Taylor Tanita drives the lane for two of her 12 points for Lady Centaurs. Photo, George N. Laase.
On Friday afternoon at the Anaheim Convention Center, Culver City High School’s girls basketball team’s quest for its first 2-A CIF championship in more than 30 years did not end as hoped.
The Lady Centaurs lost to second-seeded Murrieta Valley, 47-39.
On Wednesday, the Lady Centaurs (10-0 and 24-6) start their CIF Division 2 state playoff run on the road.
They will travel to Granada Hills High (8-2 – 22-8) for a 7 o’clock game. Granada finished second in the West Valley League and won the CIF L.A. Section D2 finals by beating Westchester in overtime, 51-43.
The fourth-seeded Lady Centaurs played very well for 3½ quarters on Friday.
They were in position to pull out the win, but the Lady Centaurs hit a cold shooting streak in the final 2½ minutes.
Culver City fouled to try and stay in the game, but Murrieta made its free throws to inch away with the victory.
Senior guard Taylor Tanita scored 12 points and had five assists.
Junior Kelsey Ueda had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Centaurs. Culver City had 23 second-chance points to Murrieta's two.
The Nighthawks were tall and were quite athletic for their size. Murrieta out-rebounded the Lady Centaurs 44-30. They blocked six Centaur shots.
In the decisive final eight minutes, Murrieta (26-5) outscored Culver City 18-10 while shooting 40.5 percent from the field.
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
