Girls’ basketball: La Jolla Country Day 46, Gardena Serra 36

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Top-seeded La Jolla Country Day will return to the State Championship for the first time since 2008 after beating second-seeded Gardena Serra, 46-36, in the Division IV Southern California Regional final at Ontario Colony High on Saturday evening.

Nearly half of La Jolla Country Day’s points came from the free-throw line, where the Torreys were 20 for 35. Serra was five for 15 from the charity stripe.

Kelsey Plum had 23 points and six rebounds for La Jolla Country Day, which entered the game ranked No. 3 in the nation by Maxpreps. Maya Hood added 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Rejane Verin led Serra with seven points and nine rebounds.

Both teams struggled to score at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Serra was held scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of the eight-minute quarter while La Jolla Country Day only had four points. And neither team had a great shooting night. La Jolla Country Day shot 30.8% while Serra shot 29.4%.

--Melissa Rohlin