Panthers win 5th straight
The Porterville High School girls basketball team kept their win streak going with their fifthstraight double-digit win, this time a 51-35 win over Lindsay in the opening round of the George Glover Memorial Basketball Tournament hosted by Strathmore High School.
Sophomore Jazlynee Medrano led the Panthers (5-1) with a game-high 24 points and was under the basket for multiple steals and rebounds. Aggressive on both sides of the court, she was tough for the Cardinals to defend and scored 16 points in the first half alone.
“She’s very athletic, sometimes she’s a little bit hard on herself,” PHS head coach Dave Kavern said. “And it’s like all these kids if they get on a good roll, they’re real good. They get down on themselves from being young. So, we got to learn to play at a more even keel.”
Coming out of the half Lindsay was only down 27-19, but Porterville broke away from the Cardinals early in the third quarter and scored nine unanswered points for a 13-point quarter. The Panthers found success against the Cardinals zone defense and were able to attack down the middle. PHS freshman power forward Cienna Enriquez scored five of her 11 points in third quarter.
Lindsay’s Danielle Jauregui led Lindsay team in scoring with 19 points and had all 14 of the Cardinals points in the second half.
“She comes away with 19 points, seven assists and that’s what I need from my leader,” LHS head coach Izzy Torres said. “But again, we’re not going to be successful when one girl is putting up 19 points and everyone else is putting up four, three, six and two. We just need to distribute the wealth.”
Despite the win and how well his team played on defense, Kavern said the team has work to do on offense after missing a number of layups throughout the game. The Panthers averaged over 70 points in their first two games thanks to fast-break points.
“Defensively we’re playing pretty well, but offensively we’re missing an awful lot of layups,” he said. “And for a fastbreaking team — which we are, we’re pretty athletic — you got to be able to make layups… we’re missing easy shots. I don’t know if it’s cause we’re so young — we have seven sophomores and freshmen up with us — or we’re just going too fast, we need to go harder in practice or [what]. We’ll figure it out.”
Up next, Lindsay faces Granite Hills (2-4) today at 3 p.m. while Porterville plays Exeter (4-1) at 7:30 p.m. Times subject to change. Exeter 45 Granite Hills 29
Granite Hills girls basketball fell 45-29 to Exeter in the first round of the tournament at Strathmore.
Yvette Felipe led the Grizzlies with nine points and Shealuhn Hunter followed with seven.
Exeter took an early 14-7 lead in the first quarter and didn’t allow Granite Hills to score more than eight points in any quarter.
The Grizzlies were able to hold the Monarchs to just six points in the fourth quarter.
GHHS head coach Randy Rippee said the team played well, but were hurt by their 23 turnovers.
“We’re going to take our lumps,” Rippee said, acknowledging it was still early in the season.
Strathmore 61 Tulare Western 25
Strathmore’s girls basketball team overcame a slow start to earn the 61-25 win over Tulare Western in the opening round of the 35th George Glover Memorial tournament.
Kaija Ambriz lead the way for SHS with 19 points, seven rebounds and seven steals. Jazmine Soto put up 17 points and had eight steals. Jasmin Cardenas pitched in nine points.
The Spartans will face Bakersfield Christian in a 6 p.m. semifinal — a schedule change due to Strathmore hosting the state football game.