Saratoga's Justin Zebb, cutting through the defense in a win over Homestead, tossed in 25 points in two games last week, but the Falcons lost twice.




Photograph by George Sakkestad







Falcons win big on Valentine's Day

Redwood sweeps at Top of the Mountain

By Dick Sparrer

It wasn't exactly the St. Valentine's Day massacre ... well, maybe it was. It was the final game of the regular season in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League last Thursday night, and the Saratoga girls rolled to a 47-19 Valentine's Day victory over Cupertino ... so you do the math!

It was a lopsided 28-point victory for the Falcons, who finished up the regular season with a solid 11-3 league record. Saratoga finished second to Milpitas in the race for the El Camino championship.

Freshman Bryte Nielsen led the Falcons to the easy win over the Pioneers. The freshman poured in a game-high 13 points to head up a list of three Falcons in double digits.

Sophomore Victoria Liu hit a pair of threes on her way to a 10-point night, and soph Diana Shih chipped in with 10 points.

Karen Woo pitched in five points in the win and Tiffany Tan, Sarah Yee, Jordan Henry and Julia Anderson added two points each. Judy Wang had a point to round out the scoring.

The Falcons jumped out to a 10-point lead after a period and led by 11 at intermission. Saratoga unloaded in the third, though, to outscore Cupertino 18-2 on the road to the easy win.

Things didn't go quite as well for the Saratoga boys last week. The Falcons lost two tough decisions in El Camino play, falling 52-51 to Los Altos and 58-51 to Cupertino.

Still, the Saratoga boys--like the girls--will advance to the Central Coast Section playoffs this week. The Falcons finished the regular season with a 14-13 record overall and a 7-5 mark in league play.

Senior guard Justin Zebb pumped in 15 points and junior Matt Ashburn added 14, but the Falcons lost by seven to Cupertino last Friday night. Ashburn popped a pair of three-pointers and Zebb had one.

Eric Lee finished with eight points, Mark Elfving had four and C.K. Kaplan, Aron Mitsunaga, Frank Wallace and Greg Van Hoesen added two each.

The Falcons, who trailed by three after a period, were up by three at intermission. But Cupertino outscored Saratoga 18-10 in the third and 15-12 in the fourth to claim the seven-point win.

Earlier in the week, the Falcons lost by just a point to Los Altos. Zebb and Ashburn tossed in 10 points apiece to lead all Saratoga scorers. Ashburn had a pair of threes and Zebb hit one.

Lawrence Hui finished with eight points for the Falcons and Wallace and Van Hoesen added six each. Lee canned five points, Elfving four and Chris Barrett two.

Warriors head to CCS

The Westmont boys basketball team will also open play in the CCS playoffs this week after wrapping up a 7-5 league season and 16-10 regular season record with a 48-37 win over Prospect last Friday night.

Clay Tolbert pitched in 15 points to lead the Warriors to the win over the Panthers. Tolbert had a three among his six field goals and added two points at the charity line.

Dan Betti supported with 14 points, including a pair of threes.

Kyle Bonvechio led all scorers in the game with 17 points for the Panthers. He had three three-pointers among his seven field goals.

Roma Ngaleo supported Bonvechio's effort with nine points for the Panthers.

Earlier in the week, Westmont had fallen 57-51 to Overfelt while Prospect was beating Yerba Buena 56-55 in overtime.

Brandon Sligh had the hot hand for the Warriors, but his 24 points wasn't enough to push his club past the Royals. Tolbert added 12 points, including a three.

Prospect, 3-9 in league play but 14-13 for the year, battled back from a seven-point halftime deficit to tie YB 51-51, sending the game into overtime. The Panthers outscored the Warriors 5-4 in the extra period to pull out the win.

Ngaleo led all Prospect scorers with 19 points, and Ryan Najima added 15 points, including a three. Bonvechio joined the two in double digits with 11 points.

The win secured a winning season record for the Panthers and helped them clinch a berth in the CCS playoffs.

Westmont girls split

The going was pretty tough for the girls basketball teams in the rugged Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League this winter.

And the Westmont girls proved tough enough to win five games and play .500 basketball for the regular season.

Westmont claimed that fifth league win last week and secured no worse than a 13-13 season record when the Warriors pulled out a hard-earned 44-40 win over Oak Grove on Wednesday night.

The Warriors ended up losing their regular season ender 64-34 to Presentation, but the loss couldn't keep Westmont from hanging on to its .500 mark for the year.

The important win in that effort came earlier in the week when senior guard Jennifer Brown jammed 15 points to lead the Warriors to the four-point win over Oak Grove.

Senior Shannon Stenzel supported with 10 points in the Westmont win. Allyson Carrothers added six points to the effort, Jennifer Chaney and Karly Brownridge had four apiece, Shantale Higginson three and Heather Rasmussen two.

The Warriors opened up a 25-14 lead by the half and held on over the past two periods as Oak Grove chipped away. But the Eagles could get no closer than four points, and Westmont had locked up the win.

Things didn't go as well for the Warriors on Friday night against Presentation. Brown buried 15 points, but she was the only Westmont player in double figures in the loss to the Panthers.

Stenzel, Higginson and Rasmussen supported with four points each for the Warriors. Rachelle Brady added three points and Chaney and Brownridge had two each.

The Warriors found themselves down 14-4 after a period and in a 22-point hole at intermission. It was more than Westmont could make up.

Redwood wins

The boys basketball teams at Redwood Middle School swept the competition at the C.T. English Top of the Mountain basketball tournaments, winning the sixth, seventh and eighth grade titles.

The sixth grade team rolled to five straight wins Jan. 12-13 to claim a tourney title. The team was coached by Scott Peters and team members included Andy Capek, Chris Chiou, Lawrence Choi, Kris Clark, Nathaniel Coggins, Jared Eller, Peter Florence, Chris Lee, Emerson Lin, Adam Prewett, Thomas Reynolds, Nick Scudellari, Sam Scudellari, Michael Vetrone and Steven Walker.

The seventh and eighth grade teams each posted five wins over the Jan. 26-27 weekend to claim tourney championships.

Members of the eighth grade team, coached by Brian Senior, included Kia Agahdel, Joseph Bramlett, Bryan Cohn, Chandler Galt, Amir Gupta, Kai Kawahara, Jeffrey Lee, Ryan Matsura, Jeff Roberts, Peter Sclavos, Richie Scudellari, Ryan Sherer and Matt Wright.

Playing for the seventh grade squad were Rohit D'Costa, Taylor Dere, Kamron Fariba, Chris Govers, Kaveh Hemati, Greg Justice, Michael Liao, Lenny Liccardo, Bo Nielson, P.J. Rezaii, Bennett Rothenberg, Connor Skelly and Bryan Weidert. The coach was Jennifer Vandenberg and John Nielson was the assistant coach.

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