Southwest High's Vanessa Villareal goes for a layup against Serra High on Wednesday in Imperial. |
Speed and strength proved to be the difference as the Serra High girls’ basketball team defeated Southwest High, 64-49, in a CIF-San Diego Section Division II opening-round game Wednesday night in El Centro.
The fifth-seeded Conquistadors raced out to an 11-2 first quarter lead over the 12th-seeded Imperial Valley League co-champion Eagles with a physically punishing full-court press.
“I was going in hard but they were usually there waiting, but we had to keep going,” said Southwest sophomore guard Evalyn Cota, who with the rest of the Eagles struggled with the pressure.
It wasn’t that the Eagles weren’t prepared mentally but needed to adjust physically as well.
“We knew they would be fast and physical but we didn’t catch up to their speed and strength until the second quarter and then we were in a hole,” Southwest coach Jon Hinshaw said.
The Eagles indeed fought back in the second quarter, cutting the Serra lead to 30-22, then got to the free throw line but were unable to convert, hitting just six-of-17 from the charity strip to trail 36-26 at half.
“We’ve struggled with them all season but I think we lost the game because of our problem keeping up with their pace,” Hinshaw said.
Serra outscored Southwest 25-14 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach and signal the end of senior point guard Vanessa Villareal’s prep career.
“About the middle of the third period I was looking at the scoreboard and thought that it was over,” Villareal said. “I was thinking that I was finishing with a CIF game and a home game … it was nice.”
Southwest’s Maci Lerno had a strong all-around game scoring a team high 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds while blocking four shots and dishing out four assists.
“The difference tonight was that they were bigger than the average Valley team and stronger,” Lerno said. “We gave it our all and I thought we did pretty well for how tall and fast they were.”
Cota ended the game with 10 points and eight steals with Kaycee Forrester adding nine points and Villareal seven points and seven assists.
Southwest finished the season 21-7 overall and loses just two seniors, Villareal and Nohely Ortiz.
“We had an extremely good season and the girls have never backed down from a challenge and they didn’t back down tonight,” Hinshaw said.
The fifth-seeded Conquistadors raced out to an 11-2 first quarter lead over the 12th-seeded Imperial Valley League co-champion Eagles with a physically punishing full-court press.
“I was going in hard but they were usually there waiting, but we had to keep going,” said Southwest sophomore guard Evalyn Cota, who with the rest of the Eagles struggled with the pressure.
It wasn’t that the Eagles weren’t prepared mentally but needed to adjust physically as well.
“We knew they would be fast and physical but we didn’t catch up to their speed and strength until the second quarter and then we were in a hole,” Southwest coach Jon Hinshaw said.
The Eagles indeed fought back in the second quarter, cutting the Serra lead to 30-22, then got to the free throw line but were unable to convert, hitting just six-of-17 from the charity strip to trail 36-26 at half.
“We’ve struggled with them all season but I think we lost the game because of our problem keeping up with their pace,” Hinshaw said.
Serra outscored Southwest 25-14 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach and signal the end of senior point guard Vanessa Villareal’s prep career.
“About the middle of the third period I was looking at the scoreboard and thought that it was over,” Villareal said. “I was thinking that I was finishing with a CIF game and a home game … it was nice.”
Southwest’s Maci Lerno had a strong all-around game scoring a team high 15 points and grabbing 13 rebounds while blocking four shots and dishing out four assists.
“The difference tonight was that they were bigger than the average Valley team and stronger,” Lerno said. “We gave it our all and I thought we did pretty well for how tall and fast they were.”
Cota ended the game with 10 points and eight steals with Kaycee Forrester adding nine points and Villareal seven points and seven assists.
Southwest finished the season 21-7 overall and loses just two seniors, Villareal and Nohely Ortiz.
“We had an extremely good season and the girls have never backed down from a challenge and they didn’t back down tonight,” Hinshaw said.
