One Win Away

Pali High Girls Basketball Advances to City Final with 45-39 Victory over Arleta

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

All game Mercy Montgomery waited for her moment. With just over two minutes left it came and she banked in a three-pointer from the top of the key to break a 39-39 tie. The Palisades High girls basketball team hung on to beat feisty Arleta 45-39 in the City Section Division I semifinals Saturday afternoon at Venice High.    

“If I’m open I’m going to take it,” Montgomery said. “I like having the ball. In the locker room before the game I felt hungrier.Every game could be my last.”

Now the Dolphins need to stay hungry in practice this week.   

“Hunger­—we’ve got to keep eating,” Montgomery added. “Entering the fourth quarter we had to keep our heads up. Calls were going against and shots weren’t falling, but we kept playing hard.”

As the only senior in the lineup, Montgomery’s leadership was crucial. Palisades’ two other seniors, Chaya Brennan and Brooke Messaye, were at a student government function in Sacramento and top scorer Jane Nwaba had to sit out after suffering a concussion in the quarterfinals, but will likely be cleared to play in the finals.

Demoni Lagway and Sammie Arnold each had 12 points for the Dolphins, who fell behind 9-0 but rallied to go up 30-21 at halftime.

The fifth-seeded Mustangs led 36-35 entering the fourth quarter, but top scorer Itzel Sanchez had no points in the last eight minutes.    

“You live by the three, you die by the three,” Pali High Coach Adam Levine said. “Threes are what got them the lead early and what got them back in the game in the third quarter. Fortunately for us, they missed them at the end. We rarely go zone but when you do that’s what you give up. As the No. 1 seed we’re supposed to win,   but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be easy.”

Palisades (22-8) will play No. 2 Carson (14-7) for the Division I championship Saturday at 1 p.m. at LA Southwest College.

Boys Hoops Falls to View Park

Ahead by 13 points with five  minutes left in the third quarter of last Friday’s City Division I quarterfinal game against View Park, the Pali High boys team seemed to have victory well in hand. Then the visiting Knights started pressing, the Dolphins started turning the ball over and when the final buzzer sounded Palisades was on the losing end of a 71-64 score.

Junior Graham Alphson finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks and senior Nick Kerkorian had 16 points and six assists for the No. 4-seeded Dolphins (13-14). Corey Curtis scored 22 for 12th-seeded View Park.

“Hats off to them, they were gritty and we stopped executing our gameplan,” Pali High Coach Donzell Hayes said. “I’m amazingly proud. We’re so much better than we were in November.”