Division V

after this season. Fulton guided this year's seniors Mattie Greenstone, Reeser, Mina Swaim, Summer Jenkins, Nayely Aguirre and Conklin to the State championship game each of the past two seasons.

Fulton continued, “I've known Lily and Mina Swaim and some of these girls since they were in

third grade. Those seniors are a special group and they have accomplished so much. The juniors, Carly Amborn and Tosia Konczak, are the future of the team.”

Junior Carly Amborn finished with a game-high 27 points and 15 rebounds to go with five steals as the Panthers gave Fulton his 604th career win. Konczak came up big for the short-handed Panthers with 12 points and five rebounds.

Amborn, Conklin and Konczak outmatched the Cougars on both ends of the court almost from the start of the game. The Panthers held a narrow fourpoint edge until they closed the first quarter with a 6-0 run, that included a pair of layups from Konczak, who sliced her way to the hoop with a smile on her face.

San Domenico rode the momentum through the second quarter, and it seemed like the Panthers had the game well in hand

with a break.

“That's a good team. We knew we had a hard game ahead of us,” said Konczak, who came to San Domenico from Poland, where she played at the national level. “The game was exciting. The first time the ball dropped through the hoop, it felt so good.”

Cornerstone Christian has a reputation against Marin County teams, after an early-season win over Redwood and a fivepoint

at the

loss to Marin Catholic. Both teams won their NCS championship games Friday.

The Cougars went on a 9-2 run to open the second half, and kept pushing to close the Panthers' lead to 39-34. For the first time since the opening minutes of the game, the teams were locked in a real contest.

“We were up and down a bit,” Fulton said. “In the first half, Averey and Tosia got us going. They were dynamic together. But Cornerstone

Christian is a good team. They found a way to come back.”

San Domenico recovered, though, as Amborn scored 16 points in the final 8 minutes, and the Panthers defense gave up just three points in what Fulton said “might have been the best quarter we've played all season.”

“We let up a big in the third quarter, but then we made some adjustments,” Conklin said. “That was a great fourth quarter.”