PORTOLA VALLEY — In a matchup Tuesday between two of the perfect women basketball groups within the Bay Space, West Bay Athletic League rivals besides, Pinewood left little doubt as to who’s on prime of the pecking order at this level of the season with a convincing start-to-finish highway domination of Priory, 63-38.
“They wanted it more than we did,” Priory coach Buck Matthews stated.
“They kicked our (butts) last year and don’t think I didn’t remind the girls,” Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler stated. “Two weeks from Friday they will come to our place, make the necessary adjustments and make things a little different. We did the same thing here to them last year, almost a running clock in the fourth quarter, and they did the opposite to us. And they know that.”
Homecourt drawback.
“Losing to them on Senior night last year was definitely a wake-up call for us because it affected our CCS seeding,” level guard Caitlyn Kramer stated. “Coming into this game we knew not to underestimate them. We prepared a lot during practice and took that energy into the game.”
On Tuesday, with former Pinewood and Stanford standout Hannah Leap rooting the crew on earlier than leaving for Turkey on Friday to play professionally, the guests jumped out to a 10-2 lead and by no means let up. Pinewood performed with a mixture of pace and precision and executed offensively at a excessive degree, taking pictures 60% for the sport (24 of 40), 16 of 25 on 2s and eight of 15 on 3s. Katherine Garr led the way in which with 19 factors, Vallory Kuelker scored 16 and Jolyn Ding had 12.
Lengthy recognized for its 3-point marksmanship, Pinewood knocked down eight 3s however did much more injury taking the ball to the ring. The crew’s two ball-handling guards, Kramer and Ding, took turns backing down defenders for post-up layups.
“We know how they defend our sets and we ran counters to them and got layups,” Scheppler stated. “All of our philosophy is getting easy shots, easy scores within the framework of how we play. That means 3s or at the rim.”
Pinewood pressured 14 turnovers and turned various them into transition baskets.
“They couldn’t get anything,” Scheppler stated. “We were in their grill, made them very uncomfortable.”
Garr, a switch from Palo Alto, scored from inside and outside and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Kuelker, a Gunn switch, made three 3s and drew reward from Scheppler for her protection.
“At one time Vallory was the worst defensive player we’ve ever had and tonight she was the best defensive player on the court,” Scheppler stated.
Kuelker talked about what it’s been like coming to Pinewood.
“Competitive, everyone has a love for the game,” Kuelker stated. “These are all my closest friends. We do everything together. We go to the gym together, lift together. It’s such a bond. We have fun, we all root for each other.”
Jordyn Moss led Priory with 10 factors, Natalie Neumann scored 9.
“We had 14 days off, hadn’t played since December 30th, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse,” Matthews stated. “I’ll put all the blame on me as a coach. We didn’t shoot well at all. We didn’t execute. We’ll see them in a couple of weeks. We should be better then. But they came in tonight and did an amazing job.”
