PHS, GHHS moving on
Panthers top Stallions 50-30
It seems like whenever Porterville High School girls basketball takes the court, a blowout, lopsided score is coming in the Panthers’ favor.
Third-seeded Porterville picked up their 20th doubledigit win of the season with a 50-30 victory over the visiting 14th-seeded Madera South Stallions in Wednesday’s opening round game of the CIF Central Section Division IV playoffs at Bill Sharman Gymnasium.
The Panthers (25-4, 8-2 East Yosemite League) had full control of the game from the start, nearly picking up a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter after freshman forward Cienna Enriquez drained a three at the buzzer to give Porterville a 16-7 lead at the end of the first. The Panthers then held the Stallions (11-17) to a 3-point second quarter while sophomores Jewelia Maniss and Trinity Soliz, along with senior Hailey Johnson, combined for 12 points.
But it was the third quarter that had a dominating Porterville team in a bit of trouble. Bringing in their top shooter Lexi Eller, who averages 13.8 points a game off the bench, Madera got some help offensively on the court from the young sophomore who finished with a team-high 12 points.
Along with Eller, Stallions’ sophomore Kierra Smith hit two three’s to give the Madera South offense some fight and cut the Panthers’ lead to 12 — the closest the score had been since the Panthers’ built up an 18-point lead at the end of the first half, 28-10.
“We lost track of their shooters,” PHS head coach Dave Kavern said. “Their leading scorer [Eller] didn’t play in the first half. I don’t know if it was discipline or what. But we lost track of her and then they had another girl hit a couple three’s, we didn’t get out on the shooters quick enough. That’s something we’re working on for Friday.”
Despite Madera outscoring Porterville 15-11 in the third quarter and multiple missed close-range shots, the Panthers didn’t have much to worry about with many of their starters still on the court and their defense making the steals and getting the rebounds to retain control of the game.
Maniss led PHS with 12 points and scored in every quarter while sophomore Jazlynne Medrano finished with 10 points. Johnson chipped in eight points off the bench and had two three’s on the night.
“Offensively we didn’t do very well,” Kavern said. “We missed a lot of easy, open layups. Defensively we played pretty well. You hold someone to 30 points, you’re pretty happy. I thought we rebounded the ball [well] with their two big girls [listed at 6-foot]. We didn’t get any type of flow on offense. We missed layups, easy shots. But it’s our first playoff game so hopefully we’ll be better on Friday.”
Porterville hosts the winner of 11th-seeded Mendota (16-10) and
sixth-seeded Washington Union’s (20-7) opening round game on Friday in their quarterfinal game.
Granite Hills 46 Liberty 28
Prior to their game, head coach Randy Rippee told his players they had nothing to lose and to leave everything on the court, and that’s exactly what the seventhseeded Granite Hills girls basketball team did in their 48-26 win over 10th-seeded Liberty in their opening round game of the CIF Central Section Division V playoffs at home Wednesday.
The Grizzlies (13-14, 5-5 East Sequoia League)
were led by junior Yvette Felipe with 17 points and 20 rebounds while junior Victoria Peyron contributed 10 points. Freshman point guard Shealuhn Hunter finished with nine rebounds, five assists and five steals.
“Pretty incredible what the girls did here tonight,” Rippee said about the Grizzlies’ first playoff game and win in over a decade.
Rippee added that he was proud of his girls and that his post dominated down low.
On Friday, Granite Hills travels to secondseeded Chowchilla (1412) for their quarterfinal game.