Fast-paced, baseline-to-baseline offense to begin the second half has been a common staple among the Aragon girls varsity basketball team throughout the season and Thursday’s match-up against the Santa Clara Bruins on Feb. 26 was no exception. Coming out of the halftime break, the Lady Dons began their 18-point third quarter with multiple opportunities in the open court; however, struggles inbounding the ball would prove to be Aragon’s achilles heel, causing them to blow their nine-point fourth-quarter lead in their eventual 45-42 loss.
To begin the third quarter, sophomore guard Jen Horita’s defensive pressure forced the opposing team into multiple turnovers and allowed Aragon to run the court where they were able to move the ball around the perimeter and find the trailer for quick three pointers off catch-and-shoot opportunities. In fact, the team made three of their five baskets from downtown in the third quarter alone.
Prior to the Lady Dons’ dominating third quarter, the team had struggled to contain the Bruins’ shot attempts near the basket. Midway through the third quarter, the team had tried to employ a 2-3 zone, but missed assignments allowed for Santa Clara’s senior guard Bobbi Brown to work her way to the charity stripe a total of eight times throughout the night. Still the Lady Dons were able to keep the score close at halftime, 20-18 in favor of the Bruins, behind suffocating wing defense from Horita and senior guard Tiffany Chen, who repeatedly pressured the Bruins to pick their dribble up on the sideline and commit poor passes that were easily intercepted by Aragon’s help-side defense.
In the fourth quarter, Santa Clara’s 2-2-1 full-court press caused three consecutive turnovers from Aragon’s inbound passes, which allowed the visiting team to reduce Lady Dons’ lead to 36-33. Moreover, the Bruins’ sophomore guard Taylor Snyder, who fought her way to seven free-throw attempts, proved to be a problem for the Lady Dons even after assembling into a man-to-man defense. Similarly, sophomore guard Devyn Snyder was able to take go on a streak from behind the arch, scoring nine of her game-high sixteen points, the clutch. In comparison, the home team only scored six points in the last quarter, all of which came from Horita, to Santa Clara’s eighteen.
With 22.2 seconds left in the game, Aragon attempted to run a play of their leading-scorer, junior forward Briana Reynolds, but a missed look coming off the weak side forced the Lady Dons into a last minute shot attempt from three that went past the buzzer. The final score of 45-42 effectively concluded Aragon’s season with a 12-10 overall record.
