An inspired
Carondelet (Concord) basketball team used a balanced attack and first-half scoring runs of 16-0 and 14-0 Saturday to breeze past arch-rival and host
San Ramon Valley (Danville) 64-49 in the East Bay Athletic League playoff finals in Danville.
The victory ended a four-game losing streak against San Ramon Valley (24-3), which got 17 points from
Natalie Pasco, 14 from
Sierra Chambers and 12 by
Sadie Carter. The Wolves couldn't overcome deficits of 23-11 and 41-20 after the first two quarters while watching their 22-game win streak snapped.
While Carondelet (24-2) had their usual fine games from Stanford-bound point guard
Talana Lepolo (14 points, 8 assists, 5 steals) and Davis-signee
Nya Epps (10 points), it was the inside work of
Megan Dickert (21 points) and
Jaime Kent (16 points, 13 rebounds) that was the difference.
Kent was especially effective and fired up throughout the game. She was afterward as well, telling Prep2Prep senior editor Harold Abend: "We knew they were not a better team than us and the fact we lost to them the was kind of embarrassing and it kind of lit a fire under (us)."
San Ramon Valley, which defeated the Cougars 64-60 in Danville on Jan. 29 led just once, 3-0 on a 3-pointer from Pascoe.
Carondelet essentially took control from there with a 16-0 run, four of the buckets coming from the 6-foot Dickert to take a 23-11 lead after one quarter.
A three-point play from Sadie Carter gave the Wolves a little punch to start the second quarter, before the Cougars went on a 14-0 run and this one was basically over with SRV down 41-16.
The Wolves again made pushes throughout the second half, closing to 52-42 early in the fourth. But back-to-back inside buckets from Dickert off feeds from Lepolo salted it away.
Nya Epps, Carondelet
File photo by Darin Sicurello
"Our intesity from start to finish was just what we need," Carondelet coach Kelly Sopak said. "We knew they'd come back hard the second half but we weathered it not like the last time which was on me.
"This was a good one but we have a lot bigger games for us moving ahead."
Both teams will likely be at the top of the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs next week. They could also meet again in the CIF Northern California Regionals starting the first week of March.
Kent thinks if the Cougars put their mind to it, anything is possible. Like Saturday's game.
"We know what we're made of and the last game we didn't prove that," she said. "We knew we'd come in here and win by 20 points plus and we delivered on that."
