LAKE ELSINORE – Kianna Williams has often carried the girls basketball team for Lakeside of Lake Elsinore during her four seasons on the north side of the lake.
If Saturday night was any indication, those days might be over, and an elite era for the Lancers might just be getting started.
Sophomore guard Tavian Lasley scored a team-high 13 points, junior Maia Crawley added 12 and Lakeside broke away in the fourth quarter to defeat visiting Corona del Mar, 57-37, and advance to its first CIF Southern Section girls basketball championship game in the school’s nine-year history.
The Division 3AA victory for second-seeded Lakeside (23-6) pits the Lancers in a section final next Friday or Saturday against top-seeded Santa Barbara, which turned back Yorba Linda, 48-41, in the division’s other semifinal.
Lakeside surged ahead several times during Saturday’s game, played in front of an emotional and boisterous home crowd, but the Sea Kings (21-9) kept within striking distance.
Keaton Gaughan hit a 3-pointer and Natalia Bruening – who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds – sank a free throw to knot the score at 27-27 with 34 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Lancers then unloaded.
Williams, a senior forward who had played conservatively to that point – partially to stay out of foul trouble – got aggressive and tallied six points in the fourth quarter and finished with eight points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
She entered the game averaging 19 points and seven assists.
“I told her, ‘You are the best player in our division,’” Anthony Williams said. “Now go out there and act like it.”
She had a lot of help.
Lasley sank three second-half 3-pointers. Freshman Emma Merriweather scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter, and junior Victoria Sosa finished with a game-high 15 rebounds.
Contact the writer: lnegri@pressenterprise.com
