Saratoga's Tiffany Tan runs the floor in the 48-35 loss to Wilcox Feb.8. It was the second loss of the week for the Falcons, who slipped to 2-10 in league play.




Photograph by Kathy De La Torre







Saratoga Falcons take leaders into OT

But Saratoga boys, girls each lose two

By Dick Sparrer

They were separated by seven games in the league standings--and by more than a dozen games overall this year.

But when the final buzzer sounded Feb. 6, the Los Altos and Saratoga girls were dead even.

The Falcons played the first-place Eagles tough for four periods. How tough? Well, it was tied 31-31 at the end of regulation.

Despite the fact that Los Altos came into the game with a 9-1 record in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and the Falcons were 2-8, and despite the fact that the Eagles were 17-4 for the year and Saratoga was 5-14, the clubs were even at the final buzzer.

The upset, though, wasn't to be. Los Altos edged Saratoga 5-2 in the extra period to pull out a hard-earned 36-33 victory.

Freshman guard Tiffany Tan pitched in 11 points and senior guard Dernie Wang added 10 to lead the offensive attack for the Falcons. Szu-Han Wang and Karen Wood suspported with six points apiece. D. Wang and Woo each popped three-pointers.

Saratoga actually jumped out to an 11-5 first-period lead against the Eagles and pushed that to 19-10 by intermission. Los Altos outscored the Falcons 14-4 in the third quarter to take a 24-23 lead, but Saratoga had an 8-7 edge in the fourth to force the game into overtime.

It was Los Altos coming out on top, though, and the Eagles held onto the El Camino lead.

Saratoga ran into another title contender two days later and dropped a 48-35 decision to Wilcox. The Chargers improved to 9-3 in the division with the win.

The Falcons and Chargers were locked in a 9-9 tie at the first buzzer, but then Wilcox started to pull away. The Chargers led 24-18 at the half and 33-20 after three quarters.

Senior center Tannaz Altafi led all Saratoga scorers with 14 points. D. Wang chipped in with 10, Woo popped a pair of threes to finish with six, Tan had three points and S. Wang hit two.

The two losses lef the Falcons 2-10 in the El Camino Division and 5-16 for the year.

Falcons fall

The Saratoga boys also lost twice last week, falling 68-28 to Palo Alto and 49-41 to first-place Wilcox in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL.

Saratoga slipped to 3-9 in division play and to 10-14 for the year.

But despite the difference in their records, the Falcons and Chargers played a close game on Friday night before Saratoga ended up losing by eight.

The Chargers led 10-5 after a period and were up by 13 at intermission. But Saratoga cut the lead to four after three quarters. Wilcox, though, outscored the Falcons 17-13 in the fourth period to pull out the eight-point win.

Alexi Sevastapoulus tossed in 10 points to lead all Saratoga scorers in the game. The 6-foot-1 senior hit a pair of three-pointers.

Justin Zebb had nine points and Daniel Ruby added seven, each one hitting a three. Jesse Alejandro supported with six points, Eric Lee had four, Matt Ashburn hit three and Mark Elving had two.

Earlier in the week, the Falcons were destroyed by Paly 68-28. Sevastapoulus led Saratoga with seven points and Alejandro added six. Zebb and Lee had four points apiece, Ruby three and Elving and Alan Tsai two each.

Soccer Playoffs

It was quite a week on the soccer field at Prospect. The Panthers won three games and tied one, and that was enough to push both the boys and girls teams into the Central Coast Section playoffs.

The Prospect girls beat Piedmont Hills 5-0 and Leland 3-1 to improve to 8-4-2 in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, and the boys beat Prospect 3-2 and tied Leland 0-0 to move to 7-4-1 in the MountHamilton circuit.

The two clubs each won spots in the CCS Division II playoffs, and they'll be on the road for first-round games this week.

The Prospect boys, 8-7-3 for the year, will open at Gunn (16-1-1) on Feb. 14, 2:30 p.m. The winner will advance to the quarterfinals on Feb. 17, 2:30 p.m., against the Santa Clara-Alisal winner at Alisal.

The Prospect girls, 12-5-3 this year, will visit San Mateo (14-2-2) on Feb. 14, 2:30 p.m. The winner will advance to the quarters on Feb. 17, 10 a.m., against defending CCS champion Mitty (17-0-4) at Cupertino.

The Westmont girls have also made it to the postseason. The Warriors, 14-3-1 for the year, tied Pioneer 1-1 and beat Overfelt 1-0 last week to win the title in the BVAL's Santa Teresa Division. The Warriors were 12-1-1 in league play.

Westmont will open the CCS Division I playoffs on Feb. 17, 2:30 p.m., against Live Oak (13-3-3) at Santa Clara.

A first-half goal by Anna Vugdalic off a Megan Clapp assist lifted the Warriors to the 1-0 win over Overfelt last week.

Earlier in the week, Megan Gurney scored the lone goal for Westmont in the 1-1 tie against Pioneer.

Shani Armstrong had two goals and an assist and Brooke Madsen added a goal for Prospect in the 3-1 win over Leland.

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