Sunday, May 16, 2010

West Coast Spring Invitational Championship: DFW 42, West Coast Premier 38

DFW beat West Coast Premier 42-38 in the Championship game of the Spring Invitaional at Mount San Antionio College in Pomona today.

The game was close throughout, with neither team ever getting a lead bigger than five points. WCP had the size, with six girls in the lineup listed 6 feet or taller. DFW relied on skilled guard play and had only one girl that was over 6 feet tall. Scoring leaders for DFW were Moriah Jefferson with nine points, Empress Davenport, also with nine, and Chelsea Jennings with eight.

(Note: the names of the DFW players are what was on a team roster I was able to view while at the tournament, I hope it was correct and up to date).

Leading the way for WCP was Jordan Adams of Mater Dei, with seven points, and Devin Hudson of Colony, also with seven. Sheila Boykin of Long Beach Poly added six points.

It was nice to see Alexyz Vaioletama in the lineup for WCP. She had been out for about 10 months with stress fractures in both shins, and today she looked fine.

Having watched several games over Saturday and Sunday, I would have to see the tournament MVP was Moriah Jefferson of DFW. Still a sophomore, she played with poise and control of the game whenever she had the ball. In two tournament games that DFW won by close scores, she was able to control the ball and keep it away from opponents in the final two minutes of the game both times. She also sank some clutch free throws in those wins.

The semi-finals were won by WCP over Essence, from Florida, 52-48. DFW advanced to the final game because Boo Williams forfeited the game as they had to catch their plane back to the East coast.

DFW beat Boo on Saturday night in an exhibition game (no affect on the pool play) 50-47. The Boo-DFW game showed some elite talent for both teams including Elizabeth Williams and Cierra Burdick of Boo and the three girls I mentioned from DFW earlier.

- IM in OC

Here's the complete bracket. I'll have more pictures tomorrow.

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