The Culver City High School girls' basketball team pulled off a stunning 62-56 upset of defending CIF-Southern Section Division I-A champion Santa Monica in an Ocean League game last Friday at Santa Monica.
The Centaurs, 10-8 overall and 2-0 in league, led by one point at halftime before steadily pulling away in the fourth quarter.
Culver City was led by Jade Neal with 21 points. Taylor Tanita and Markie Samler added 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Lunden Junious contributed seven points and six rebounds, and Kelsey Ueda had seven points and three steals for the Lady Centaurs.
Mithzy Hernandez led Culver City in rebounding with seven.
At Morningside High School in Inglewood on Jan. 12, the Centaurs downed the Monarchs, 50-36, in an Ocean League game.
After hosting Inglewood in another key league game yesterday, Culver City will be at home against Hawthorne in Ocean League play Friday at 6 p.m.
The Lady Cougars hosted the Lady Sentinels last Friday with Inglewood crushing Hawthorne, 87-22.
Culver City ran into a red hot Serra High team, the defending CIF titlists, the prior week.
The Centaurs started slow but kept up with the Cavaliers, getting as close as five points midway in the third quarter, but ran out of gas at the end. The Lady Cavaliers, last year's CIF-Southern Section Division V-AA champions, scored the game's final 17 points for a 90-59 rout at Serra in Gardena.
Serra scored the game's first seven points and led, 22-9, after the first period.
Down 42-27 at halftime, Culver City got to within five at 51-46 on a three-point basket by Taylor Tanita. The Centaurs scored their final points with about five minutes left in the game before the Cavaliers finished them off.
“We're inexperienced,” said Julian Anderson, head coach of Culver City. “Serra has more experience. We played the defending champs. We played them tough for three quarters, then we broke down at the end. I'm proud of the way we played.”
The Centaurs were led by Lunden Junious with 21 points and Jade Neal with 15. Tanita added nine points.
Other contributing players early in the league season are Mithzy Hernandez, who averages eight rebounds a game, and Kelsey Ueda, the team's steal leader.
