VALLEJO >> The powerful St. Patrick/St. Vincent High School varsity girls basketball team couldn’t shake the Lower Lake Trojans until the fourth quarter on Wednesday night, pulling away in the final period for a 78-62 non-league victory that was anything but routine.
“I was really proud of the girls,” Lower Lake coach Dave Milano said.
St. Patrick/St. Vincent (4-0), with only two seniors on its 12-girl roster, plays a wide-open game on offense while its pressure defense makes an opponent fight its way up the court.
“They’re so fast that we would leave one girl to try for the offensive rebound and send everyone running back to the other end of the court,” Milano said. “If you don’t do that, they’ll beat you down the floor, that’s how quick they are.”
To combat the Bears’ pressure defense, Milano stuck with a rotation of his seven best ballhandlers.
“We went with them most of the game,” Milano said. “We might have gotten tired in that fourth quarter.”
Lower Lake (1-2) battle St. Patrick/St. Vincent to a 50-50 draw through three quarters.
“Down the stretch we were cold,” Milano said. “It’s not like we weren’t getting shots, but those shots instead of rolling in were rolling out.”
The Bears were averaging 83 points a game through their first three games while the Trojans were averaging 55 through their first two.
“We held them below their average and scored above our average,” Milano said. “Those were our two goals going into the game and we achieved both.”
Aleia Milano’s 16 points led a balanced Lower Lake attack that featured 10 points apiece from Claire Alderson and Jolean Scarborough, nine from Vanessa Hughes, seven from Katelyn Farrell and six from Samantha Caires.
Milano had half of the team’s six 3-pointers.
Lower Lake’s junior varsity team fell 34-29.
The Lower Lake varsity plays Berean Christian of Walnut Creek tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the first round of the Sutter Home Tournament at St. Helena High School. The tournament runs through Saturday.
In other girls tournament action Wednesday:
Swett 49, Clear Lake 39
At Healdsburg, a team used to having it way with opponents so far this season had to work a little harder on Wednesday as Swett High School of Crockett beat the Clear Lake Cardinals in the opening round of the Redwood Empire Invitational.
“We didn’t make it easy for them,” Clear Lake coach Kory Reynolds said of the play of the Cardinals’ defense, which pretty much shut down the middle.
Swett (4-0) gradually pulled away from Clear Lake (2-3). It was 11-9 after one quarter, 25-17 at halftime and 39-30 through three quarters.
“We had our chances but we didn’t shoot well,” Reynolds said.
Kiana Richardson’s 12 points led the Cardinals, who face either Healdsburg or Willits on Friday, most likely at 4 p.m., according to Reynolds. Kortnie Reynolds added 11 points while Corin Alakszay and Camille Donald each had seven.
Swett entered play having scored 95 and 90 points in its previous two games.
“They looked like they were upset they didn’t score more against us,” Reynolds said.
The tournament runs through Saturday.
