LONG BEACH — The Long Beach Poly girls basketball team began the fourth quarter on a pivotal 9-0 run to pull away for a 53-37 win against Lakewood Monday night.
The victory earned the Jackrabbits (17-9, 10-0 Moore League) at least a share of the Moore League girls basketball championship.
“All of those goals are always nice but our goal is to go as far as we can in CIF (playoffs) so these last three games with Lakewood, Jordan and Santiago who we played this past Saturday were huge for us as far as getting ready for the playoffs,” Long Beach Poly girls coach Carl Buggs said.
Poly was led by sophomore guard Bailey Prewitt with 15 points, including nine in the second half. Junior guard Jazmyne Shamburger had 10 points. Senior Brooklyn Taylor, the team’s leading scorer through 28 games, added nine points against the Lancers.
“We didn’t start off well, missed a lot of shots and it seemed like it was a lot of nervous energy on both sides really but then we settled down,” Buggs said. “We had some subs that came in and did a nice job for us picking up the slack when some of the starters were having a little bit of an off-day.”
Coach Buggs pointed to reserves Helena Vu, Nevaeh Lemons and Joy Anderson, who combined to score nine points, for being game-changers by providing energy off the bench.
“It was a good team win,” Buggs said.
Lakewood (22-4, 9-2) was led by junior guard Nyemah King, who scored a game-high 19 points in three quarters. King left the game early in the fourth with an apparent injury and never returned.
It was a slow start for both teams, who missed layups and free throws early. Poly led 11-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Lakewood coach Eric Oswell used senior Cristina Jones as a point forward early, which forced Long Beach Poly senior forward Brooklyn Taylor to have to guard her on the perimeter. Coach Buggs countered by bringing junior guard Joy Anderson off the bench to prevent Jones, who finished with nine points, from being able to drive and finish at the rim.
Both teams continued to miss free throws and layups in the second quarter as Poly clung to a 15-14 lead with 4:17 left in the first half.
Poly junior guard Helena Vu made a three-pointer, which extended the Jackrabbits’ lead to 22-16, with less than three minutes to go in the second.
Poly led 26-20 at halftime.
Lakewood’s King banked in a three-pointer, which cut Poly’s lead to 26-24. However, sophomore guard Jordyn Washington’s layup put the Jackrabbits back up 28-24. Poly’s Shamburger’s layup made it 30-24. Lakewood senior guard Nyla Hawkins banked in a three-pointer, which again cut into Poly’s lead, this time pulling within 30-27.
However, Poly senior guard Andrea Perkins knocked down a transition three-pointer, which put the Jackrabbits up 33-28 late in the third. Prewitt’s layup pushed Poly’s lead to 35-28 with 2:13 remaining in the third.
Poly led 37-28 heading into the fourth quarter. Junior guard Neveah Lemons made one of two free throws, which gave the Jackrabbits their first double-digit lead of the game, 38-28 early in the fourth.
From there the rout was on. Shamburger’s layup, Prewitt’s three-pointer and Taylor’s and-one have Poly a 46-28 lead with 5:09 to go. The Jackrabbits never looked back and won 53-37.
Lakewood will host California on Tuesday and conclude Moore League play at Jordan on Thursday.
Long Beach Poly will cost Cabrillo on Tuesday and conclude Moore League play at Millikan on Thursday. A win in either game will secure the Jackrabbits an outright league title.
Both teams will learn who they will play in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs when brackets are released on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Coach Buggs is looking forward to the challenge of going on a postseason run.
“Just keep putting in work,” Buggs said. “The things we need to keep getting better at (because) I don’t feel like we’re peaking yet to tell you the truth but just keep putting in work over this next week and just get ready to go.”