Ventura Pulls Off Upset of Narbonne

Caitlin O’Neill, the lone senior starter in Ventura’s lineup, had heard about Narbonne -- the rich girls’ basketball tradition, its City Section championships and state titles and that it was “a pretty intimidating place to be.”

And she had to admit “it was intimidating.” But it didn’t matter Tuesday night.

O’Neill scored 17 points and Ventura (28-4) pulled a 48-47 upset over Narbonne (21-9) in a Southern California Regional Division I quarterfinal.

O’Neill wasn’t alone. Kali Bennett, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, had 16 points, and though she could hardly buy a basket after the first quarter, her short turnaround jumper with 2 minutes 4 seconds left made it 48-47, the last of 14 lead changes.

“That’s my favorite shot,” Bennett said. “I hadn’t been making it lately. I was praying it would go in.”

Narbonne committed two of its five fourth-quarter turnovers after Bennett’s basket, the last one with seven seconds left on a traveling violation.

Ventura’s Taylor Comer missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw try with six seconds left. Narbonne’s Morghan Medlock rebounded the miss, dribbled and made a long pass to freshman Reiko Thomas, whose 20-footer at the buzzer caromed off the back of the rim.

Thomas finished with 14 points and Pepperdine-bound Sherriel Boyd -- whose steal and layup had provided a 47-46 lead with 2:21 left to play -- had 15 points for Narbonne, a three-time state champion.

Martin Henderson

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Brea Olinda 50, Fresno Edison 41 -- Sophomore point guard Jeannette Pohlen had 17 points to lead the visiting Ladycats past fourth-seeded Fresno Edison.

Pohlen was one of three Brea starters who got into foul trouble -- each finishing with four fouls.

In boys’ playoff games:

Los Angeles Verbum Dei 64, Van Nuys Montclair Prep 42 -- For pure entertainment value, the Eagles earned a high rating by demonstrating the art of dunking over and over.

The Eagles (17-8) had nine dunks, including four by the best dunker of all, 6-6 senior Gerard Anderson, in a victory over the second-seeded and host Mounties in a quarterfinal game of the Southern California Regional Division IV boys’ basketball playoffs.

“We were having fun,” said Anderson, who had 18 points. “We played hard because we lost the [Southern Section Division IV-AA] championship game to Campbell Hall and we want to play them again.”

Anderson started a 13-2 run in the second quarter with a dunk. Verbum Dei had five dunks and a three-pointer during the surge. Vince Fuller had 15 points and Brian Anderson had 10 for the Eagles.

Eric Sondheimer

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Lakewood Artesia 56, Fresno Washington 50 -- James Harden made three of four free throws in the last 30 seconds to lead the fourth-seeded Pioneers (27-4) to the regional semifinals for the second time in three years.

Artesia made seven of eight free throws for all of its points in the last two minutes to pull away from Washington (24-7), which had a 17-game winning streak.

Malik Story had 18 points and eight rebounds and Harden had 13 points for the Pioneers, who play top-seeded North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake on Thursday.

Gary Pinkney sparked the Pioneer defense, holding Washington standout Treyvon Willis, who averages 27 points, to a team-high 18 points.