The Palisades High girls basketball team executed its gameplan Friday night in the first round of the Southern California Regional playoffs. The only problem was, it started one quarter too late.
Connecticut-bound 6’3” forward Katie Lou Samuelson scored 27 of her school-record 42 points in the first eight minutes for Mater Dei, which ended the Dolphins’ dream season with a 99-73 Open Division victory in Santa Ana.
“We were told ‘If you’re open, shoot the ball’ and we had confidence we’d make them,” Pali High point guard Kayla Merrill-Gillett said. “Our shots just weren’t going down in the first quarter and that led to transition points for them.”
Given a second chance against heavily-favored Mater Dei, which routed the Dolphins by 42 points at the Palisades Beach Invitational in November, head coach Torino Johnson believed he had the right formula for an upset.
“If we can make 17 of the 40 three-pointers we plan on taking we’ll be in good shape,” he said. “They can have the twos. We’ll trade them for our threes.”
The seventh-seeded Dolphins showed no fear and outscored Mater Dei in the second and fourth quarters. In the end, however, their 13 three-point baskets weren’t quite enough to overcome the Monarchs’ size advantage.
“In the locker room afterwards I asked my assistant coaches when was the last time they could remember when a team gave up that many threes and won,” Mater Dei Coach Kevin Kiernan said. “We felt we could work the ball inside. When you have a player like Katie Lou you try to get her a lot of touches.”
The second-seeded Monarchs (29-2) entered the matchup as one of the top-ranked teams in the nation. Their only blemishes were a pair of one-point losses to West Hills Chaminade, which was awarded the top seed in the eight-team regional.
Merrill-Gillett finished with 23 points, Bianca King had 21, Chelsey Gipson had 16 points (including four three-pointers), Rita Herbstman had nine on three three-pointers and Sammy Spanier and Chaniya Pickett each added a basket for Palisades (23-11), which had its 20-game winning streak snapped. The Dolphins hadn’t tasted defeat since Jan. 3 against La Jolla Bishop’s in the same gym.
“We definitely had a different mindset this time,” Spanier said. “We came in thinking we’ll be surprised if we lose. We always felt like we had a chance to win.”
Samuelson hit a three-pointer from the top of the key on Mater Dei’s first possession. King made a layup, but the Monarchs scored the next 15 points and led 32-12 after the first quarter.
“We knew that she was gonna get hers,” King said of Samuelson, who averages 30 points per game. “We wanted to make it tough on everyone else, but they were making their shots too.”
Palisades pulled to within 15 points with one quarter to play but couldn’t narrow the deficit to single digits.
“I played my first game here as a freshman on JV,” Herbstman recalled. “I’ve improved so much since then.”
Palisades played 17 games –half of its schedule – against teams that reached the state playoffs in their respective divisions and Johnson knows bigger things are in store for his program.
“I’m so proud of what these players have accomplished because they’ve taken us to a whole new level,” Johnson added. “We’re returning four starters and we’ll be something scary next season. We didn’t lose a game in our section and we were able to beat the last two City champs. We also earned respect from the Southern Section. We scored 73 points against Mater Dei this time and only 32 last time. That shows we’re a better team now.”
— Steve Galluzzo
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