Warrior Basketball
The Lady Warriors varsity basketball team ended their season in a second round CIF playoff game
Friday at Frontier. Amanda Viselli (above) led the team in scoring this season. The Lady Warriors finished at
17-10 this year, and won a co-championship in the SSL. Photo by Michael Duffy, The Tehachapi News.
Posted by Tom Shea, The Tehachapi News, on March 3, 2010 Lady Warriors Season Ends at Frontier
Tehachapi built up a big lead in the first half and never relinquished down the stretch en route to a 42-33 win over Golden Valley in the first round of the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Lady Warriors, no.1 seeded Frontier loomed in the next round and the Titans squeezed past Tehachapi, 56-48 in the quarterfinals.
"We had a good jump on them but (Frontier's) shots just started to fall," said coach Mark Bennett.
A strong inside presence helped Tehachapi (17-10) build a 20-12 lead in the first half, but the Titans then went on a 16-4 scoring run to pull away in the contest.
"Our girls were hanging with them, even at the start of the fourth quarter we were in it," said Bennett. "It was close. If we had a few transitions that played out differently it would have been a whole new game."
Overall in both games combined, Persephonie Devereaux had 21 points, Paige Bennett and Amanda Viselli finished with 17 points, Alyssa Cowee had 14 points, and Jasmine Julye had 11 points to lead all scorers.
The Lady Warriors showed great improvement since the last time they faced Frontier, widely considered one of the top teams in Kern County. Tehachapi first squared off with the Titans in a tournament in December, falling 64-40 in the second round.
"We had some girls in that first game that were sick or couldn't play, and we knew that we'd be up for them the second time," Bennett added. "We wish it wasn't over but they accomplished a lot this season. They came along way and we're proud of the girls."
Tehachapi finished the year as SSL champions, their sixth league title in seven years.
