For the varsity girls basketball team, it’s a normal tactic to spend the first half of the game figuring out the strategies of the other team. And it’s normal to come back after halftime stronger than ever.
“We’re a second-half team,” senior Steffanie Sum said. “We go all out third and fourth quarter.”
According to Sum, the last time the team played the Falcons, they were able to spot the key players, including Saratoga High School junior Hannah Johnson, and figure out strategies to work around the challenges. But during the Lady Mats’ senior night game against SHS on Feb. 10, the usual routine of picking it up during the second half wasn’t enough to clinch a victory, ending eight points behind 51-59.
Prior to the game was a senior ceremony dedicated to Sum and senior Hitomi Sugimoto, as this was the last home game of the season.
“It hasn’t hit me yet, but I’m definitely thankful for this team,” Sum said.
At the beginning of the first quarter, Sum and Sugimoto both drew fouls and scored the team’s first four points with free throws. However, the Lady Mats’ lead did not last long as SHS sophomore Tivoli Sisco scored a three-point shot shortly after the team made two layups in a row.
“We knew who were they’re best players, and first game [with SHS] was like a trial-and-error kind of thing,” Sum said. “We knew that one girl [Johnson] was their ultimate player, but we didn’t know that number 12 [Sisco] was a shooter. So in this game, we tried to cut down her threes, but we just couldn’t do that.”
Right from the start of the quarter, SHS began to take far shots, avoiding contact with the strong MVHS defense. As Sisco continued to take three-point shots, the Lady Mats couldn’t quite catch up due to missed free throws, constant turnovers, and inability to make shots. During their full-court pressure, small mistakes in ball control by the Lady Mats allowed SHS to steal the ball and score fast breaks.
“[The pressure] was kind of messy at first,” Sugimoto said. But both she and Sum agreed that they cleaned up the offense more during the second half.
Throughout the game, SHS missed quite a few far and outside shots — Sisco missed more three-pointers than she made — but although many times the Matadors were often able to get the rebound, they seemed unable to take advantage of them. When Sum drew a foul behind the three-point line, she only made one of her three free throws. Both Sum and Sugimoto agree that if the team had been more successful in free throws, the chance of winning would have been much better.
“[Coach Sara Borelli] told us that we were going to win this game from free throws,” Sugimoto said. “But I guess we couldn’t do that.”
Being unable to force the Falcons out of the key due to match-up problems was a huge challenge in defense. According to Sum, many of the the team’s attempted offensive plays ended up being blocked by the larger SHS players during the second quarter, causing them to miss fast break shots. Points scored by Sugimoto’s layup and junior Megan Tsao’s free throw did little to close in on the opponent’s lead, going into halftime behind 19-36.
Although the third quarter began better for the Matadors, with a three-pointer by sophomore Stephanie Jennings and two layups by Sum, SHS was able to make successful plays on several loose balls to keep their possessions alive. Sugimoto, drawing a number of fouls in the quarter, was very successful in most of her free throws, helping to slowly reduce the opponent’s lead. As the opponent began to miss many of their two-point and three-point shots, the Lady Mats’ aggressive pressure seemed to work well in forcing turnovers.
However, another overarching problem of the game was that MVHS was often unable capitalize on these turnovers to translate them into points on the scoreboard. This allowed the Falcons to continue pulling slightly ahead, even as the Matadors seemed to come close in the middle of the last quarter 46-50 after free throws by Sugimoto and two layups by Tsao.The game ended 51-59 with Sugimoto’s layup six seconds before the buzzer went off.
“[Borelli] said we gave them a game,” sophomore Sarah Im said. “[SHS has] been winning really easily [so far in the league], and we’re the first team that they actually had a real game with.”
This game being the last home game for Sum and Sugimoto was bittersweet, as they are both thankful for the bonding throughout the season and dance performance at brunch by the team dedicated to them.
“It’s sad that we lost, but I think we played really hard,” Sugimoto added. “I don’t really regret anything.”
