City Section scores from last night

I won't rail once again on the lack of score reporting around here - especially from the so-called major daily newspaper, the LA Times, who last updated girl's scores a week ago. I'll just go ahead and report them my own self.

Chatsworth defeated Fairfax 63-47.

Taft defeated Washington Prep 69-57.

Not sure of the details of the first game, though I messaged with one of the Fairfax coaches last night, who said they were (obviously) very sad and disappointed.

At Taft, the home team started strong and was up on Prep, 16-8 at 2:44 in the first quarter. Prep rallied, but was only able to cut the lead to six, 19-13, at the end of one.

The Generals were within two, 29-27 at 2:22 in the second quarter, but the Torreadors stepped on the gas. They stepped up their defense and threw Washington off their game, and made a few key threes (senior Haley Newell was responsible for most of them the whole game long). Taft was up 41-26 at the half.

The third quarter was a nightmare for Prep: they were missing bunny shots and easy layups. In the meantime, Taft could do no wrong; they couldn't miss. The referees were not doing their jobs, either, by letting a lot of blatant fouls go. (The moment I saw the short female ref before the game, I knew the officiating would be bad, because she is). The Generals let the crappy reffing (both ways) get to them, and this made things worse. The Torreadors were up 60-35 after three - the most I've ever seen Prep behind.

The Generals suddenly seemed to remember who they were in the fourth quarter, and they fought back. Junior guard Kejuana Gardner lead the charge, and Prep cut the lead to 63-50 with 2:40 to go. The usually-enthusiastic Washington crowd went wild.

But the Generals let Taft eat up too much time on the next possession, and they were slow with the ball themselves. The refs made another bogus call on Washington. A play later Gardner, never giving up, had the put-back; 66-53 with 1:14 to go. But thirteen seconds later, Gardner had to foul on purpose to stop the clock. Despite two great Gardner buckets in the final minute, it was too little, too late: 69-57 Taft.

Taft snapped Washington's 18-game winning streak, and will play Chatsworth in the City Finals next Saturday evening at the Galen Center.

I'm not sure what happened to either team, as Taft had lost to El Camino Real (the team that Washington beat handily Wednesday night) twice during the regular season, and didn't win their own league. And Washington didn't look like themselves all night long.

The Taft crowd was sportsman and sportswoman-like, but I still say that the City Section playoffs should do as the Southern Section does and have playoff games at neutral school sites. It would be much more fair for every team concerned.

Fortunately for Washington, and maybe Fairfax as well, there is still state playoffs, so their seasons aren't done yet.