Bonanza advances to face Centennial

Leah Robinson

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2002 | 11:20 a.m.

After a sluggish first half, Bonanza's girls basketball team shook off its collective nerves and trounced Mojave 64-40 Wednesday at the 4A Sunset Region Tournament at Palo Verde High School.

But the real test awaits.

The first-round playoff game served as little more than a warm-up for the No. 10 Bengals (24-7), who will face stiff competition from undefeated and top-ranked Centennial (29-0) in the semifinal round.

The teams will meet Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Palo Verde. The winner will advance to Saturday's 5:30 p.m. Sunset championship, with the loser dropping into a consolation game Saturday at 2 p.m. Three of the remaining four teams will advance to next week's 4A State Tournament

"I'm just going to act like it's any other game," said junior guard Lyndsay Gensler, the school's all-time leading scorer. "It's my job to help get the team pumped up, so that's what I'll focus on."

The teams met back on Dec. 7 on Bonanza's home floor, with Centennial winning easily, 74-50.

"At this point, it's a little late in the game to start making any major changes," Bengals coach Cathy Szymarek said. "We'll just play our best and our hardest and hope that we can come out on top."

At the start of Wednesday's game, it seemed Bonanza would have trouble beating Mojave (5-14). The Rattlers pulled ahead three times in the first half, tied the game twice and went into halftime down by just five points.

Bonanza, however, was able to swing the momentum the other way in the second half. The Bengals came out of the gate with an 11-2 run to start the third quarter, and Mojave never regained control.

"I was proud to see my team pull it back out like they did and recover," Szymarek said. "We just really stepped up our defense. I knew once we did that, the baskets would start to sink, and they did."

Bonanza's Serrita Coleman led the charge with 20 points, with Jennifer Ward and Gensler each adding 16 points.

If the Bengals lose Saturday, they can still earn a trip to state through the loser's bracket, but Szymarek isn't thinking about that just yet.

"Obviously, we aren't thinking past (Centennial) and they probably aren't thinking past us; just one game at a time," she said.

Centennial advanced with an easy 88-33 win over Durango. In the other half of the Sunset bracket, Western got past Palo Verde 51-46 and Bishop Gorman topped Cimarron-Memorial 45-33.

The Warriors and Gaels play in Friday's first semifinal at 3 p.m.