CITY GIRLS BASKETBALL : Kennedy Silent After Its Victory Over Westchester

Kennedy High is in the City Section 4-A girls championship game for the third straight year, but are the Golden Cougars happy?

Who knows? After Kennedy’s 41-38 win over Westchester in the 4-A semifinal Friday at the Sports Arena, Kennedy Coach Craig Raub refused to talk about his team’s victory.

Had Raub talked about it, he probably would have admitted that his Golden Cougars were a little lucky.

After building a nine-point half-time lead, Kennedy struggled in the second half, scoring only two points during one 6 1/2-minute stretch.

But Westchester couldn’t take advantage of the scoring drought, missing several lay-ins and many makeable shots, and that was the difference.

“We start off so slow,� Westchester Coach Beverlie Pendleton said. “If we had a better first half, we would have had this game.�

Westchester, which trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, pulled to within five points, 33-28, with nearly five minutes left.

Diane DeCree led Kennedy with 14 points and Tisa Rush had 13. Kennedy’s opponent in the final is Crenshaw, a 69-42 winner over Jordan.

North Hollywood 53, Lincoln 51--The Huskies mill make their first ever appearance in a City championship game at 4 p.m. on Friday at the Sports Arena. At home, North Hollywood led, 37-35, going into the fourth quarter and opened it up when Michelle Cabaldon hit two free throws to give the Huskies a 46-40 lead.

Lincoln’s Ruth Aguilar converted on a three-point play to bring Tigers (16-3) to within three, 46-43, but North Hollywood (18-2) went ahead for good behind the scoring of Debbie Herz, who scored 8 of her team-high 14 points in the final period.

Reseda 74, Garfield 48--Cheryl Hightower scored 18 points and Aggie Garcia had 17 points and 19 rebounds as Reseda led throughout in a semifinal game at Garfield. With the victory, Reseda’s record moves to 14-2.