Live! CIF State Basketball Championships Friday

Division I girls
Canyon Springs (Moreno Valley) 56, Pleasant Grove 30

It wasn’t particularly pretty, but Canyon Springs’ first state championship victory was worthy of a tiara.

Canyon Springs coach Gail Hale is known as a disciplined, loud, no frills sort, so she promised her girls if they won the state title she would wear a bright princess crown for the rest of the day.

So after the decisive win, behind 24 points from Cheyenne Greenhouse and 10 points and 17 rebounds by Charnea Johnson Chapman, Hale and her staff sported kept their promise.

They wore the crowns during post-game interviews and Hale said she planned to wear it until midnight. Or if she turned into a toad.

“A promise is a promise,” said Hale, whose team improved to 25-6. “And a championship is a championship. ... We had a chat at halftime and the girls responded.”

Did they ever, outscoring the upstart Eagles 19-8 in the third quarter and 16-7 in the fourth.

After making just 7 of 27 shots in the first half, the Cougars made half of their 28 shots in the second. Kimari Hollis added 12 points.

So what did the chat entail?

“Actually, we never just chat,” Hale said. “All my halftime talks are pretty stern. But the girls really played hard and executed.”

The Cougars turned the ball over just 14 times, got five blocks from Johnson-Chapman, a 6-1 junior, and limited Pleasant Grove to 22 percent shooting (11 of 50) while forcing 20 turnovers.

They also got superb interior defense by Johnson-Chapman, who contributed five blocks.

“Before halftime, we were doing more things wrong than right and yet we still had a lead,” Johnson-Chapman said. “If we could just turn those things around, we’d be in real good shape.”

Pleasant Grove (25-10), which won its first regional title over heavily favored Berkeley despite being the 12 seed, Got eight points from Brittany Nguyen, who also had a game-high three assists. Teammate Dominique Buckor came off the bench and played 14 minutes but grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.

Canyon Springs 56, Pleasanton Grove 30

CANYON SPRINGS (25-6)
Cheyenne Greenhouse 9-24 6-7 24, Brianne Cheatum 1-3 2-4 4, Charnea Johnson Chapman 4-10 2-4 10, Kimari Hollis 4-7 1-1 12, Chaiaha Scott 1-5 0-0 2, Brittan Chestu 1-2 0-0 2, Kennedy Williams 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 21-55 11-16 56.

PLEASANT GROVE (24-10)
Brittany Nguyen 3-7 0-0 8, Aaliyah Pena 2-9 2-4 6, Kim Schmeltz 3-13 0-0 6, Samantha Huddleston 1-4 0-0 2, Nicole Nickerson 0-2 3-4 3, Michelle Gorski 1-4 0-1 2, Dominique Buckor 1-4 1-1 3. Totals 11-50 6-10 30.

CS  11  10  19  16  -  56
PG   5   10   8    7    - 30

3-point goals; CS 3-7, PG 2-6. Rebounding: CS 40 (Johnson-Chapman 17), PG 37 (Buckor 9). Turnovers: CS 14, PG 20.

Preview
Win streaks: Canyon Springs 4, Pleasant Grove 4
State record: CS 0-1, PG 0-0
Points per game (allowed): CS 60.4 (44.2), PG 50.4 (40.8)
Terrific trios: Canyon Springs — G Jordyn Penniman, G Cheyenne Greenhouse, G Kimari Hollis. Pleasant Grove — G Brittany Nguyen, G Kim Schmelz, C Aaliyah Pena
Notes: Greenhouse, a 5-10 senior, averages 21.4 ppg and has taken 444 shots. … Canyon Springs averages 12.1 steals per game. … Canyon Springs is ranked 35th in the state, Pleasant Grove is No. 75.
Predicted winner: Canyon Springs Click on next page to see Modesto Christian's win over Santa Barbara