Long Beach Poly, St. Anthony, Avalon girls advance to semifinals

The Long Beach Poly girls basketball team survived its first scare of the postseason. The top-seeded Jackrabbits trailed by as many as seven points on the road against a sharpshooting Troy team, but pounded the ball inside to a pair of special post players to dig out a 56-52 win in the CIF-SS Open Division quarterfinals Wednesday.

Poly was led by USC commit Ayaa Clark, a powerful post player who had 21 points and 16 rebounds, and Jasmine Jones, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds against the height-challenged Warriors. The Jackrabbits’ duo shot a combined 14 of 21 from the field.

It was Clark’s first game in the playoffs after sitting out last weekend’s Open Division opener, and the Jackrabbits needed her badly.

“It’s huge having her back,” said Poly coach Carl Buggs. “You can’t even say how big it is.”

Poly (24-3) trailed 35-28 in the third quarter, but steadily marched back with a healthy dose of paint touches. The Jackrabbits had come back to almost tie it late in the third quarter when they got a momentum boost. After Jones got tangled up going to the ground with a Troy player, the Warriors player got up off the floor and took a step toward Jones. The Poly bench exploded in yelling, and Poly went on an 8-0 run to take a 44-38 lead early in the fourth, which it spent the rest of the game protecting with big buckets from Clark, Jones, and guard Da’Jah Jackson, who had 14 points.

“It felt good, like we all came together and played Poly ball,” said Clark.

She said the altercation with Jones definitely sparked the Jackrabbits.

“When someone wants to tu up on us, it gives that fire.”

“I had my back tued so I didn’t see her step,” said Jones. “But my teammates had my back. When we have our whole team together like that, we’re going to be ready.”

Poly will host Windward in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday.

‑ Mike Guardabascio

Divisino 1AA

Division 2A

Division 4A

ST. ANTHONY 85, MAYFIELD 46 >> Transition offense and a 17-0 second-quarter run helped the top-seeded Saints (18-11) nearly double up the visiting Cubs (16-7) in the quarterfinal round of the Division 4A playoffs.

After a relatively close first quarter, St. Anthony senior captain Tayler Beett sparked the second-quarter run in the open floor and it gave the Saints a 40-16 lead at halftime. St. Anthony freshman Lauryn Morris finished with a game-high 19 points while senior guard Megan Villar led Mayfield with 17 points.

“We want to play at our pace and our pace is fast,” St. Anthony head coach James Anderson said. “I’m happy with what we did tonight.”

St. Anthony will be on the road on Saturday for the semifinal round. This is the first trip back to the semis for the Saints since 2011, when they won CIF Southe Section and Regional title.

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“This team is a lot more battle-tested than the 2010-11 group,” Anderson added. His team has played six of the Open Division teams this season and went 2-4 against the top-tier competition.

“We didn’t always get the results we wanted in those games,” Beett said. “But they got us ready for the most important games of the year so we can smash teams and get to where we need to be.”

‑ JJ Fiddler

Division 5A

AVALON 48, PILIBOS 32 >> The second-seeded Lancers dominated, leading 25-10 at halftime. Avalon was led by 16 points from Selina Morones and 13 from Taryn Minuto.

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