Centennial faces Reno with fourth title at stake

Nick Christensen

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 11:22 a.m.

The Centennial girls' basketball team will have a familiar opponent tonight. But the Bulldogs will have to dig a little deeper into the game tape archive to scout their challenger for the 4A state high school basketball championship.

Centennial won its state semifinal against Coronado 76-49, but Bishop Gorman, which beat Centennial 60-54 last week in the Sunset Region championship game, fell flat to Northern champion Reno High in the nightcap.

The Huskies cruised by Bishop Gorman 57-45.

Reno lost to Centennial 76-48 earlier this season, and the Huskies were defeated 68-63 last year as the Bulldogs won their third consecutive state title.

"They're fundamentally sound, they come out and play hard," Centennial coach Karen Weitz said. "That's what I like about watching them play."

Reno coach Craig Campbell said tonight's championship has him concerned.

"They're missing Whitney Price," he said. "You don't want to back a champion into a corner or take them lightly."

Campbell added that he feels it helps that the Huskies have already played Centennial this season.

"The whole reason we came down and played them early is we feel we're chasing them," he said.

"The more we come out and play them, the more it's to our advantage."

The Huskies simply dominated Bishop Gorman in their semifinal. By the time the Gaels trailed 27-14 at halftime, Bishop Gorman had shot 7-of-30 from the field and had just one team assist.

"We just live and die by the jump shot, and for some reason we started shooting the ball all over the place," Gaels coach Sheryl Krpmotich said. "We played the best game against Centennial and our worst versus Reno. I'm very proud of our kids; 29-2 is nothing to cry about."

Huskies guard Kaylan King, who led all scorers with 13 points, said her team has developed chemistry since December's loss to Centennial.

"We've just come together; we're playing really well," King said. "Centennial's a great team. We have a team that's big on heart, and can play all 12 girls."

Lauren Hoisington led Bishop Gorman with 12 points, and Gaels guard Dee Gainor added 10 more.

While Reno dominated more or less tip-to-buzzer, Centennial struggled at first in its contest, trailing Sunrise Region champion Coronado until just before halftime.

"In the second half, we picked it up, and realized this is do-or-die," Weitz said. "I was not happy. Did I get on them? I have a job to do."

The return of sophomore Italee Lucas off the bench seemed to spark the Bulldogs. Lucas suffered a foot injury last week in the game against Gorman. Centennial seemed to wake up when Lucas came back in. She only scored five points, but Centennial outscored its opponent 21-15 after Lucas came in.

"I didn't expect to come in that early, I was more looking to play in the game tomorrow," Lucas said. "The energy wasn't there on defense, so the offense wasn't coming."

That changed, as Centennial outscored the Cougars 48-22 in the second half. Whitley Cox led Centennial with 25 points. Stephanie Delgado's 13 points paced the Cougars.

Coronado coach Joe Moyes said turnovers and rebounds -- the Bulldogs outrebounded Coronado 45-19 -- hurt his team the most.

"We slowed the game down, which is what we wanted to do -- keep the score down," Moyes said. "We turned the ball over a little more than I'd hoped, they turned up the pressure and it seemed like we lost a little gas."

Campbell said he, too, looks for a decreased tempo for tonight's championship.

"We'll run where we can. We like to play fast, but we don't like to rush," he said. "A track meet is not to our advantage, but we'll push the ball where we can."

The 4A girls championship will be at 6 p.m. at the Orleans Arena.