DIVISION III GIRLS: Turnovers don’t stop Bobcats

RENO — Thirty-one turnovers couldn't derail White Pine's girls basketball team Friday.

It didn't even come close.

A solid defensive effort, especially in the second half, allowed the Bobcats to pull away for a 45-27 win over West Wendover in a Division III state semifinal at Lawlor Events Center. White Pine (25-6) will meet Incline (20-5) for the state title at 11 a.m. Saturday.

"We've been blessed to be here," said White Pine coach Krystal Smith. "We just recently got a lot of our pieces back together. Our four seniors want to win really bad. I'm sure the four of them will come ready tomorrow to defend again."

White Pine led 24-16 at the half, but held West Wendover to 1-for-16 shooting in the third quarter. The Wolverines missed their first five shots of the fourth quarter and were 3-for-27 in the second half, getting few looks from in the paint.

"We have really good one-on-one defenders, and in the second half they really stepped up," Smith said.

White Pine outrebounded the Wolverines, 42-28.

"We start from the beginning of the year talking about playing tough defense," Smith said. The first half was a bit of a struggle because we didn't box out and gave them second opportunities. We knew we were much bigger, but we weren't pursuing the ball. Our second half defense was much better."

Ashlyn Huntington scored all 15 of her points in the middle quarters for the Bobcats, including a 4-for-5 effort on 3-pointers in that span.

Eight players scored for White Pine, which despite the turnover bug managed to dribble and pass the final 2:10 of the game without giving up the ball.

"Ash was feeling it today," Smith said.

Emily Bischoff added seven points for White Pine.

Anahi Esparza led West Wendover with 14 points.

Incline 60, Agassi Prep 47 — Incline post Kira Porter stands 6-feet tall.

To Agassi Prep's girls, Porter might has well have been 10-feet tall with a wingspan the width of the court.

Porter had 18 points, 14 rebounds and 12 blocked shots to help the Highlanders down the Stars in the second semifinal.

"She was a shocker," Agassi Prep coach Shalonie Hutchinson said. "She's really tall. We needed to do our part, which was stay in front of her once we noticed what she could do."

Making their first state semifinal appearance, the Stars shot just 16-for-75 from the field (21.3 percent), due in part to Porter clogging up the middle of the key and swatting anything near her.

Still, Incline led only 22-19 at the half before Taylor Redfern heated up.

Redfern, who was 2-for-11 and had four points in the first half, went 5-for-6 in the third quarter and finished with 21 points for Incline.

Sharmayne Finley led Agassi Prep with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Lovely Glinton added 10 points and 14 rebounds, and Denise Parker scored 10 for the Stars (13-7), who had never won a playoff game before this season.

"I don't even think it has hit them yet," Hutchinson said. "They know how hard they worked to get here. Hopefully that carries over to next season."