John F. Kennedy held off an aggressively, determined opponent and its own mistakes to escape with a 49-42 quarter final win against Mount Rainier in the Class 3A West Central District girls basketball tournament on Thursday at home.
Despite 20 turnovers, the Lancers (18-3) moved into a Saturday (after press time) winners bracket semifinal against Lindbergh for an automatic berth at state. Kennedy won both regular season meetings. The Rams fought for survival in a loser-out game after press time on Saturday.
"We were missing some intensity and had foul problems," said Lancer head coach Don Hoffman. "The way we played the game wasn't as well as I would have liked."
Some of the turnovers were created by charge-up Mount Rainier, which showed excellent energy on offense and defense.
Led by their quick and clever sophomore point guard Sarah Martinez, the Rams rocketed to a 4-0 lead before Kennedy worked the ball inside and outside for a 19-12 first quarter lead.
Two Martinez free throws capped a 6-0 Ram run to cut the JFK lead to 19-18 in the second quarter, but Kennedy surged into a 25-19 halftime margin.
Each time the Lancers reached double-digit advantages, Martinez, who scored a game-high 15 points and shoveled off numerous assists on slashing drives, helped bring Mount Rainier back.
"I have to know where my teammates are," the talented southpaw said. "I didn't know the lanes would be open and I was happy to drive to the basket."
Unable to close the deal, Kennedy suffered lapses of judgment and had trouble holding the ball throughout until it doused the final Ram drive to the finish with key points.
"We got lazy on defense, but worked more as a team at the end," said JFK point guard Mikayla Harshman.
Trailing by 43-31 with just more than four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Rams charged back with Leka Kaufusi and Martinez as its igniters.
A Martinez driving layup closed the deficit to 46-40 with 1:18 remaining in regulation. Senior guard Lauren Donlin was fouled and converted both ends of a one-and-one free throw opportunity as 37.8 seconds showed to make it a three-possession game for Mount Rainier.
Forced to foul with the seconds ebbing away, the Rams finally fell short of the summit.
"We've been playing better and harder the last few weeks," said Ram head coach Bob Bolam. "This is all I could ask for. We started with a man-to-man defense, but finally had to come out of it when they were getting too much inside."
JFK post players C'Era WalkingChild and Demetria Riggins each scored 10 points to pace the Lancers.
