Publication Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2004
GIRLS' CCS BASKETBALL
Pinewood's task
Pinewood's task
(March 10, 2004)is a daunting one
in the postseason
by Keith Peters
Doc Scheppler prepared his young Pinewood girls' basketball team for the season with the some of the toughest nonleague opponents he could line up.
That, of course, is liking feeding the lions from inside the cage. The result was a loss to Marin Catholic, a loss to Urban, a loss to Ursuline, a loss to Notre Dame-Salinas and a loss to Presentation.
All told, the Panthers lost nine games this season. All of them came either in tournaments or in nonleague clashes.
"Nine losses in one season is the most we've had since I've began coaching here in 1995," said Scheppler. "But, that's OK."
It's OK with Scheppler because he's hoping the tough preseason and nonleague games during the regular season will pay off in the postseason.
He and his Panthers discovered what the payoff is on Tuesday night when Pinewood (17-9) played host to Convent of the Sacred Heart (21-10) in a CIF Northern California first-round game. The Panthers are seeded No. 3 and Convent of the Sacred Heart, the defending Division V state champion, is seeded No. 6.
The winner of that game advances to the NorCal semifinals on Thursday at the site of the highest seed. That means a first-round Pinewood win likely sends Scheppler and Co. on the road to No. 2 Forest Lake Christian (27-4) in Auburn.
The NorCal championship game is Saturday at Delta College in Stockton at 1 p.m. Top-seeded Urban (30-1) is favored to be there. Urban, by the way, knocked off Pinewood by only 63-61 on Feb. 7.
So, perhaps, anything is possible at this point in the season.
"It's up to the coaches to create the atmosphere of 'what the heck, anything can happen,'" Scheppler said.
Pinewood, which has been better known for its high-powered offense throughout the years, proved it could play a little defense during its 31-21 shut down of Sacred Heart Prep last Saturday in the Central Coast Section Division V championship game at West Valley College in Saratoga. It was Pinewood's seventh straight section title.
"This win was great for our young team," Scheppler said. "They hung tough, hung together."
Pinewood's season goals this season were to win league, win CCS, win NorCal and advance to the state finals.
"We've got two of them in our bag," Scheppler said.
The last two goals, of course, are the toughest. Yet, SHP's inability to penetrate against Pinewood's defense did open some eyes and nearly broke some records.
The combined point total equaled the lowest-scoring championship game in the 27-year history of the girls' section tournament. Sacred Heart Prep was involved in the other lowest game, as well, a 28-24 win over Menlo in 2002. In addition, the fewest number of points ever in a CCS finale was 18 by Santa Catalina during a 63-18 loss to, coincidently, Sacred Heart Prep in the 1999 Division IV title game.
The Gators averted tying the record for offensive ineptitude when freshman Britney Blythe made a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in the game.
"The good news," SHP coach Wendy Quattlebaum said, "is that we can't possibly play any worse than this."
The Gators' loss was actually was a combination of decent defense by No. 1 seed Pinewood and poor shooting by No. 2 seed Sacred Heart Prep (13-15).
The Gators made two of 30 shots in the first half while scoring just five points. They warmed up with a 6-for-18 effort in the second half.
SHP junior Jessica Pecota, the team's leading scorer at 10.6 points a game, was held to three by Pinewood senior Liz Ashby. Blythe was four points under her 9.1 average. More importantly, the Gators were held to half their season team average of 42 points a game.
Pinewood was led by junior Daniela Roark with 13 points and 6-foot sophomore Alissa Flesher, who scored 11 and grabbed 11 rebounds in a standout performance. Flesher pretty much put the finishing touches on the victory by grabbing a lob from Roark and laying it in for a 29-14 lead with less than 2:00 remaining.
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