ByMITCH CHORTKOFF
Mirror Sports Editor
The annual Extravaganza matching Crossroads and Brentwood in various games is a highlight of the Westside sports season.
The venues are packed with fans. It’s noisy. It’s at times wacky. Unusual things happen.
Like Friday night, when Crossroads student Emma Schlamme was prepared to sing the nation anthem but couldn’t because of a microphone failure. So she sang it at halftime.
Then the Crossroads girls rallied from a sluggish start to defeat Brentwood. 62-59.
It was the Roadrunners’ eighth consecutive victory following one-sided losses in their first two games and was accomplished without guard Megan Baer, who is out with a knee injury for the second time in her career. Two seasons ago, when Crossroads won the only CIF championship in school history, Bear was named CIF Player of the Year.
Shannon McQueen scored 21 points, Nadine Byers contributed 17 and Caleb Farrisse 15. In the fourth quarter freshman Summer Kennedy made a couple of important plays.
Asked how the Roadrunners turned the game around from a 36-23 intermission deficit, Coach Malek Abdul-Mansour replied:
“My assistant coach really chewed them out at halftime.”
McQueen is a forward who moved to point guard, sharing those duties with Byers, when Baer missed last season with her first knee injury.
