Third-quarter surge lifts Immanuel girls to third straight section championship
The Immanuel High girls basketball team captured its third straight Central Section title Saturday night, rolling past Shafter 49-28 in the Central Section Division III championship game.
“You don’t take anything for granted,” Immanuel coach Loren LeBeau said. “If you know anything about my story, I was gone for almost seven years. I don’t take this for granted by any stretch of the imagination. One isn’t more special than the other.”
LeBeau was hired to be the Immanuel coach in 2022, two years after his release from prison. In 2012, he was arrested and later sentenced to prison time for a DUI crash on Shepherd Avenue in Fresno that killed 7-year-old Donovan Maldonado and injured the boy’s father and sister.
LeBeau fled the scene, though he later returned.
Saturday’s win was especially powerful because of the return of freshman standout Jenna Goertzen.
Goertzen, sidelined with an injury, was only cleared to return a couple of weeks ago, less than seven months after going down. She had only been back practicing for a short time, yet made an immediate impact on the championship stage.
As a freshman, she drilled six 3-pointers in the title game. Last season, she hit four in the championship.
“She’s one of the pillars of our program because of her relentless work,” LeBeau said. “To come back and get cleared in under seven months, that’s a testimony to her work ethic and to the people she gives credit to. That’s why she’s so emotional.”
The Eagles led comfortably but broke the game open in the third quarter, outscoring Shafter 20-4 in the period.
It was a stretch fueled by perimeter shooting and interior execution.
While Immanuel initially tried to establish an inside-out rhythm by working the ball into Ava Schletewitz and utilizing screens, the flow of the game dictated adjustments.
“You try to go inside-out, but everything is fluid,” LeBeau said. “Everything is a read. It’s never how you draw it up because they change things. They’re prepared. We just prepare for every scenario.”
Then Kiera Thomas caught fire, who finished with 26 points on 9 of 18 shooting from the field and 5 of 9 from 3-point range.
“When a player goes off like that, it makes coaches look really good,” LeBeau said with a smile. “She made me look good tonight.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2026 at 12:05 AM.
