Girls’ basketball: Santa Clara wins Division 5AA championship over St. Bernard, 52-49

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

After trailing by as many as 10 points, Playa del Rey St. Bernard tooks its first lead of the fourth quarter, 49-48, on Michelle Curry’s five-foot jumper with just more than two minutes left to play.

But Cynthia Hernandez, who finished with a game-high 23 points, made three of four free throws down the stretch to give Santa Clara a 51-49 advantage with 12.8 seconds remaining.

St. Bernard had a chance to tie the score on its final possession, but Kacy Swain was stuffed while trying to shoot inside. The Vikings then fouled Keiana Vines, who made a free throw to give the Saints a 52-49 victory in the Southern Section Division 5AA championship on Saturday at Santa Ana Mater Dei.

Santa Clara, which outshot the Vikings 40% to 27.9%, won its first championship since 1989.

Chyanne Butler led top-seeded St. Bernard (20-14) with 13 points and Swain finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Vines had 11 points for second-seeded Santa Clara (25-6) and Chanel Smith had 10 points and 15 rebounds.

--Melissa Rohlin