Panthers shoot the lights out to beat Chargers

The Peninsula High girls basketball team made it rain inside Sovine Gym on Tuesday night, and no umbrella could save Dos Pueblos.

Thanks to an 11-for-21 night from 3-point range and a remarkable 21-for-24 performance from the charity stripe, the Panthers were able to overcome a 16-point second-quarter deficit to hand DP a 74-68 defeat on the second day of the Tournament of Champions.

The Chargers (9-2) were beaten at their own game, in a sense, as DP is a run-and-gun team that can scorch the nets from the perimeter. Jessica Escalante was evidence of that, draining six treys to finish with 24 points on the night. But the fast-breaking that allowed the Chargers to go up 27-11 midway through the second quarter was slowed down in the second half, as Peninsula started crashing the boards and draining shots. At one point, the Panthers (7-5) made three 3-pointers in a 35-second span in the third quarter, in which they outscored DP 28-24.

Peninsula’s Stephanie Wong led all scorers with 25 points on the night. Jasmine Mata poured in 17 for the Chargers while Kristin Gowdy and Chiara DiMarco each added 11.

“That’s what we want,” said DP head coach Jelani Hicks of the up-tempo affair. “That was a fun game to play in, and it went down to the stretch and they just came out on top.”

The Chargers will play host to Santa Ynez at 4 p.m. on Wednesday as tournament action continues.

COMPLETE SCHEDULE/RESULTS

Green Division

Gold Division

PENINSULA 74, DOS PUEBLOS 68

Dos Pueblos…17  10  24  17 — 68

Peninsula…9  13  28  24 — 74

DP — DiMarco 11, Mata 17, Draper 4, Escalante 24, Gowdy 11.

P — Neeno 5, Bruno 12, Wong 25, Schafenacher 8, Sato 2, Nagasaki 8, Tsumaki 6, Emnace 1, Tsukamoto 5, Au 4.

RIO MESA 42, ST. BONAVENTURE 30

Riley Abraham scored half of the Spartans’ points in the victory over the Seraphs.

ATASCADERO 57, SANTA YNEZ 33

Alyssa Palmer scored 23 points for Atascadero.