Saratoga's Victoria Liu drives for the hoop in action against Monta Vista last week. The Falcons pulled out a come-from-behind 54-37 win over the Matadors.




Photograph by Paul Myers







Nielsen leads Saratoga girls to win

Westmont evens league record with victory

By Dick Sparrer

Bryte Nielsen is just a freshman. But the young Saratoga girls basketball player certainly belied her years last week when she tossed in 19 points to lead the Falcons to a 54-37 win over Monta Vista in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

Nielsen pitched 11 points from the free-throw line and added four field goals to lead the Falcons to the come-from-behind win over the Matadors.

The Falcons had nudged in front 8-6 in the first period, but trailed 18-15 at intermission. Saratoga battled back, though, to dominate the third period 23-8 and went on from there to clinch the victory.

Sophomore guard Victoria Liu joined Nielsen in double digits with 11 points for Saratoga. Liu had three three-pointers among her four field goals to get into twin figures.

Karen Woo also pitched in three threes to finish with nine points for the Falcons. Julia Anderson, another freshman, added four points, Judy Wang hit a three and Diana Shih, Tiffany Tan, Sarah Yee and Jordan Henry added two each.

In boys El Camino Division play last week, Saratoga lost a 45-43 heartbreaker to Cupertino.

The Falcons were up 20-15 at intermission, but a 12-5 run by Cupertino in the third turned out to be the difference in the game.

Senior guard Justin Zebb was the big scorer for the Falcons in the tough loss. Zebb buried 21 points, including a three-pointer.

Eric Lee supported with 12 points in the game. Matt Ashburn had a three among his six points and Mark Elfving and Aron Mitsunaga added two points apiece.

The Falcons, 9-9 for the year and 2-1 in the division, will visit Homestead on Jan. 16, 7 p.m., and host Mountain View on Jan. 18, 7:30 p.m., in a pair of league games.

Warriors win

A big second half sparked the Westmont girls basketball team to a rousing 43-32 win over Mt. Pleasant last week in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

The Warriors fell behind 9-7 after a quarter, but outscored Mt. Pleasant 13-9 in the second to take a 22-16 lead by the half. Then Westmont topped the Cards 11-5 in the third and 12-9 in the fourth to cruise to the easy win.

Senior Shannon Stenzel poured in 16 points to lead the Warriors to the big win. Jenny Brown added eight points in the game, Rachel Gelman had six, Karly Brownridge five, Ann Baumgardner three, Rachelle Brady and Allyson Carrothers two each and Jennifer Chaney one.

The win evened Westmont's league record at 1-1 and pushed the Warriors' season mark to 9-5.

Westmont will play host to Leland on Jan. 16 and will visit Oak Grove on Jan. 18 for a pair of 7 p.m. league games.

In other local girls basketball action, Prospect dropped a 47-38 Santa Teresa Division to Piedmont Hills. The loss leveled Prospect's league mark at 2-2 and left the Panthers 11-5 for the season.

Vikings run to head of class in scholastic

The Lynbrook boys cross-country team didn't just perform well on the trails of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this past fall ... the Vikings also did pretty well in the classroom.

Well enough, in fact, that the Vikes won the Central Coast Section Fall Scholastic championship in their sport with an outstanding cumulative grade point average of 3.6458.

CCS recognizes student-athletes in all varsity sports and honors those with the highest collective GPAs.

Los Gatos and Saratoga also placed among the CCS leaders during the fall season.

The Gatos girls were fourth in field hockey with a combined 3.5350 and the LG boys tied for sixth in football with a combined 3.1650.

The Saratoga girls finished sixth in field hockey at 3.3733.

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