Dolphin Hoops Finish Fourth Again

Just as it did in last year’s inaugural tournament, the Palisades High girls varsity basketball team finished in fourth place at last weekend’s Palisades Beach Invitational, held in the PaliHi gym. Playing for third place, the Dolphins fell just short, losing 45-43 to New Roads. Marymount used a strong second half to defeat defending champion Leuzinger, 53-48, and win the championship. The tournament adopted the same format as last year. The eight teams were divided into two pools of four. The winner of each pool met in the finals, the runner-up in each pool met in the third place game and so on down. Palisades (2-2) defeated South Bay Lutheran in its first game last Wednesday, getting 21 points from Megan Coulter, who made three three-point baskets. In the second round of pool play, the Dolphins defeated Locke. Coulter led the way with 20 points and Jaega Haralumbus added 19. With a chance to win its pool and advance to the championship game, Palisades faced Marymount on Friday night. The Sailors won, 51-44, as Coulter was limited to 15 points. Against New Roads on Saturday afternoon, the Dolphins got strong contributions from Coulter, Haralumbus and Silvia Cuellar, but the Jaguars avenged a 44-43 pool play loss to Pali in last year’s tournament. Palisades took a similar road to fourth place as it had a year ago, winning its first two games before losing its last two. Ami Harris of Marymount was the tournament scoring leader this time, averaging 22 points a game. St. Bernard defeated Locke, 45-42, to finish fifth and Campbell Hall beat South Bay Lutheran, 53-36, in the seventh place game. Coulter and Sophia Jackson of Locke each averaged 19 points in four tournament games and Ari Brown of Campbell Hall averaged 16. Rounding out Pali’s squad were Jasmine Ashley, Elane Roepke, Zedra Slaton, Lindsay Gross, Tawana Briggs, Tueheka Huntley, Gabrielle Tanedo, Sarah Fukui and Erin Graham. Last year, Palisades beat St. Bernard and New Roads before losing to Inglewood in the final round of pool play and losing to Santa Monica in the third place game. Head coach Ronda Crowley, who guided the Dolphins to an 11-13 record and third place in the Western League in her first season last year, has entered her team in the West Coast Jamboree in Antioch, California, December 28-30. The Dolphins’ junior varsity team, coached by Ronda’s brother, Sheldon, opens the season this week at the Artesia Tournament. Palisades played Washington on Wednesday (result unavailable at press time) and travels to Crenshaw for a nonleague game Friday at 4 p.m.