No. 4 Lincoln faced Etiwanda on Friday at Canyon Hills High School in the WNBA Premier Gold Division quarterfinals of the Southern California Holiday Prep Classic girls basketball tournament.
Lincoln fell behind 9-0 in the first five minutes of the game, but was unable to come back and lost to Etiwanda, 64-39.
“I’m proud of them for not giving up and continuing to push hard for each other,” Hornets coach Christine Fitzgerald said after the game. “When you play a good team, you have to find a way to overcome it and overcome adversity. We didn’t necessarily go there to start the game, but we did it to end the game. That’s what we did. I think that’s important.”
The Hornets (5-4) were able to cut the lead to 28-20 after Fitzgerald called a timeout with 2:53 left in the first half.
From there, the Eagles (6-4) finished the second quarter on a 14-3 run that included a technical foul on the Hornets for a jersey number violation. Etiwanda took advantage and scored 12 straight points out of a timeout before Lincoln scored.
“That’s when that little bit actually went away and everything changed,” Fitzgerald said. “Even through adversity, we still had to find a way. We shouldn’t have let that affect us so much.
“I said to the team, ‘Fatigue makes us all cowards.’ Unfortunately, in that moment of fatigue, definitely in that moment, we were cowards. Sometimes we conceded a goal, sometimes we conceded a goal. Sometimes we’re on the other side of a goal. We couldn’t get back on track.”
The Hornets were led by senior Asia Darquell, who scored 17 points, including nine of the team’s 10 points in the second quarter.
“She still did it with poise,” the Hornets coach said of the senior guard, who averages about 20 points per game. “It wasn’t all a struggle. She made threes. She was heavily guarded, but she was still able to make shots and it wasn’t an uncontrolled drive to the basket.”
Junior guard Marissa McCoy scored nine points, all of which came in the final eight minutes.
Etiwanda, which defeated Cerritos 78-22 in the first round Thursday, entered Friday at No. 17 in the CIF Southern Section rankings and No. 40 in the state, according to MaxPreps.
The Eagles were led by senior guard Ariyana Morris, who scored 25 points.
In addition, senior forward Grace Knox was another double-digit scorer for Etiwanda, scoring 10 points.
“They’re all good overall. Everyone can shoot, everyone can go to the basket,” Fitzgerald said of the Eagles. “They’re good at being in the right spots and converting from that possession and creating points.”
Lincoln will face the loser of Oak Ridge and Beckham in a repechage game at Canyon Hills High School at 4:30 p.m.
Etiwanda will face the winner of Oak Ridge and Beckham in the semifinals at Canyon Hills on Saturday at 6 p.m.
