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Associate mug of Kenny Connolly, Anaheim reporter.

Date shot: 12/31/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS /  ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

FULLERTON – The tempo was measured, their shots found nylon, and the home crowd was alive and booming early on.

Troy did just about everything it needed to do in Saturday night’s opening quarter to slay the Goliath that is Long Beach Poly’s girls basketball team, and at the very least, appeared poised to go toe-to-toe with the division’s top-seeded squad.

That efficiency and composure soon altered into a controlled chaos that the Jackrabbits prey off of, and in a matter of minutes, a Warriors’ lead had transformed into a daunting 15-point halftime deficit.

Twelfth-seeded Troy had no answer for Long Beach Poly’s size in the post and it struggled to produce offensively for stretches against the Jackrabbits’ hounding defensive effort in a 67-53 loss in a CIF-SS Open Division semifinal at Troy High.

This is the second straight season Long Beach Poly ousted the Warriors (20-7) from the Open Division in their own gym. While Troy will wait to see where it is seeded in the upcoming state tournament, the Jackrabbits (24-3) clinched a berth in next Saturday’s championship final at Honda Center where they will play Harvard-Westlake of Studio City.

Leading 13-11 at the end of one, Long Beach Poly outscored the Warriors, 25-8, in the second quarter, speeding the game up and getting a huge boost from senior forward Kathryn Headspeth off the bench to take a 36-21 edge into halftime.

“It comes down to the second quarter,” Warriors coach Roger Anderson said. “Twenty-five to eight. That was the game. It was just dumb stuff and it’s that inexperience we were talking about. We let (Headspeth) come off the bench and score eight points, and we can’t allow that.”

Poly’s three post players – Ayanna Clark, Jasmine Jones and Headspeth – combined for 28 of Poly’s 36 first-half points. Clark and Jones each finished with 19 points, while Headspeth added 13. Poly’s bigs also helped account for 15 offensive rebounds which led to 18 second-chance points.

Naomi Hunt led Troy with 19 points and Kianna Smith tallied 17.

Hunt had just five points at the half, and having not missed in the opening eight minutes, Smith was held scoreless for 14 minutes over the second and third quarters as the Warriors trailed by as many as 23 points in the second half.

“Offensively we weren’t patient,” Anderson said. “If you’re impatient against a team like that, you’re in trouble. And that’s the frustrating thing. I think we actually outscored them in the second half, but it doesn’t matter. It’s all about that second quarter.”

Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com