NIGHTHAWKS STILL ROLLING IN MARCH

If anyone doubted how good the Del Norte High girls basketball team is this season, stop.

The Nighthawks are quickly changing people’s minds.

Despite committing 19 turnovers to Mission Hills’ pesky pressure defense, Del Norte managed to create a game tempo they wanted.

Thanks to 24 points and 20 rebounds from junior forward Bailey Barnhard, Del Norte led from the first quarter on to upset No. 4 Mission Hills 61-57 on Thursday in the second round of the SoCal Division I playoffs.

“We had to play our game and we did all night,” Barnhard said. “There should be more believers in Del Norte than there were yesterday.”

With just a precarious fourpoint lead at 58-54 in the final 19 seconds, the Nighthawks got a free throw from Lia Biscocho and two more from Calissa Tyrrell to close out the win.

Now 22-10, Del Norte hosts Saturday’s regional semifinals at 7 p.m. against No. 9 Orange Lutheran, which beat No. 16 Chaminade 61-58.

Del Norte led 22-20 over Mission Hills at halftime despite 12 turnovers.

More importantly, they forced the game tempo to be in their favor.

And the Nighthawks harassed Mission Hills on offense, forcing a 6-for-31 shooting effort by halftime. That’s just 19.3 percent. Looking for a fourth trip to the regional semifinals and their first win, Mission Hills finished the game 16-for-60, just 26.6 percent.

Del Norte, on the other hand, got just 47 field-goal tries but hit 21 of them for 44.6 percent.

“We had to play our game,” Barnhard said. “They caused a lot of turnovers, and I knew they would.

“We had to keep them outside so they’d get no easy baskets.” Mission Hills hit 14 3-pointers. Del Norte’s biggest lead came at 48-37 with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter.

Mission Hills (21-11) closed the gap to 50-46 with a 9-2 run.

That was close as the Grizzlies got despite having just six turnovers in the game.

Del Norte, now 12-8 on the road, had lost twice to Mission Hills this season — 70-47 on Jan. 17 at Mission Hills and 52-50 on Feb. 3 at Del Norte.

The tempo was so much to the liking of Del Norte, which averaged 54 points on offense, the

Nighthawks surpassed their game average.

In addition to Barnhard, the Nighthawks, who had no free throws in the first half but finished with 14 for the game, also got 13 points from Kiana Cadigan and 10 points from Calissa Tyrrell.

“I sure didn’t expect that we’d still be playing Saturday,” Barnhard said. “But I sure am excited to still be playing Saturday, and we’re even at home.”

In the first half, the lead changed hands four times and the score was tied twice.

The last lead of the night for Mission Hills was at 15-13 early in the second quarter, but the Grizzlies chased Del Norte the rest of the night.

Mission Hills was led by Kyara Walter with 19 points and 10 points from Mariah Brown.