Dolphins Deal Venice First League Loss

There were times during last Friday night’s girls varsity basketball game when it appeared that Palisades High players had secretly switched jerseys with the opposition and it was really the Venice Gondoliers wearing the home white and doing most of the scoring. After all, Venice entered the PaliHi gym confident of victory, having easily vanquished seven consecutive opponents and fully expecting to clinch the Western League title. Yet, from the opening tip, it was Palisades which looked like the first-place team. The Dolphins outhustled, outrebounded and outshot Venice for 24 minutes, then withstood a furious fourth-quarter comeback to hand the Gondos their first league loss, 66-58, and move into a tie for second place with University. ‘This was a big win for us because they were undefeated coming in,’ said Pali junior forward Elane Roepke. ‘I’m so happy right now. It was a total team effort. I think the key was getting ahead early.’ Three and a half minutes ticked off the clock before the first basket was scored. It came on a fadeaway jumper in the lane by Palisades’ senior forward Megan Coulter and it gave the Dolphins a lead they would never relinquish. Several times this season, Pali head coach Ronda Crowley has watched her team squander big leads. This time, however, Pali kept its foot on the gas and steadily increased the lead throughout the first half. ‘We started off very sluggish on both ends of the floor and then, every time we made a run, they answered with one of their own,’ said Venice head coach Dominick Flores, whose team beat Pali, 47-41, in the first round of league play. ‘They used their height advantage to get a lot of offensive rebounds.’ Palisades led 10-2 five minutes into the game and 20-9 at the end of the first quarter, with Coulter scoring half of the Dolphins’ points, including back-to-back three-pointers. The margin continued to grow in the second quarter and by halftime Palisades (9-9 overall, 5-3 in league) had forged a seemingly insurmountable 39-22 lead. As the players exited the locker room at halftime, Crowley told her team not to let up and to ‘keep playing with intensity.’ The Dolphins did just that, opening the third quarter on a 10-3 run to take their biggest lead, 49-25. Guards Sarah Fukui and Silvia Cuellar distributed the ball expertly, driving the lane to draw double teams and passing to open teammates on the perimeter. Sophomore forward Tuekeha Huntley scored consecutive baskets and Coulter drained a three-pointer from the corner for a 51-34 Pali lead going into the fourth quarter. Aware that their winning streak was in serious jeopardy, the Gondos (17-6, 7-1) stepped up their game a notch and pulled to within 61-55 with 2:09 left on a three-pointer by guard Ivory Blockmon. But Pali forward Zedra Slaton outjumped two defenders to pull down a rebound off of Coulter’s missed free throw and her subsequent bank shot with just over a minute remaining sealed the Dolphins’ hardfought win. Coulter led all scorers with 19 points and 10 rebounds, guard Jaega Haralambus added 11 points and Slaton had 10 points and eight rebounds for Pali, which hosted Fairfax on Wednesday and hosts Westchester Friday at 4 p.m. in the regular season finale. Huntley finished with eight points, Tawana Briggs had seven and Fukui had six points and six assists for the Dolphins. Blockmon led Venice with 13 points.