Saratoga News Mahaffey leads Westmont girls to win over Wildcats By Dick Sparrer The Westmont girls couldn't have been too pleased with a seventh-place finish in the eight-team Pioneer Classic a couple of weeks back. So the Warriors took out a little of their frustration on Los Gatos in a nonleague game last week on the Westmont court. Sheryl Mahaffey, who tossed in 27 points in the three games of the Pioneer tournament, buried 15 points to lead Westmont to the impressive win over the Wildcats. The 6-foot-1 junior forward bombed a pair of three-pointers in the game. Alyssa Parsons supported with nine points against the Cats and Zuleeka Mohamed, Jenny Brown and Stacey Simmons added five points each. Kim Castillo chipped in with four points, Nina Baca had two, and Jennifer Payne hit one. The Warriors jumped out to a quick lead, outscoring the Cats 14-4 in the first period, and upped that lead to 15 by the half. They coasted from there to the win. It was the second straight victory for Westmont after the Warriors opened the season with three losses. Westmont lost to Homestead in its season opener, then dropped decisions to Soquel and Monta Vista before beating Live Oak in the Pioneer tourney. Warriors fall The Westmont boys, meanwhile, dropped a lopsided 73-49 decision to Carlmont last week in nonleague play. The Warriors, 3-3 this season, fell back 18-10 in the first period and were trailing by 14 at the half before rallying a bit to outscore Carlmont 18-16 in the third. But Carlmont topped Westmont 21-9 in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Daniel Sherburne, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, poured in 23 points to lead all Westmont scorers in the game. But he was the only Warrior to score in double digits in the loss. Vincent Chung tossed in eight points, Feras Elrayas added six, Kyle Collins had five, Byung Park hit three free throws, and Robert Li and Chris Funke had two points apiece. Collins canned a three-pointer. Panthers split The Prospect boys' team split in its first two games of the Independence Tournament. The Panthers lost a tough 30-27 decision to Mountain View to open the tourney, but battled back with a 57-38 win over Overfelt a game later. Four Panthers scored in double figures in the win over the Royals. Thomas Turner and Gil Vasquez led the way with 12 points apiece for Prospect. Barry Sharpe had a three-pointer among his 11 points, and Jerome Ort tossed in 10 points. Stephen Juran hit a three and finished with five points for the Panthers. Bryan Spratling added four points, Mike Senteio two and Kelly Stephens one. Prospect jumped out to a 15-point lead by intermission and outscored Overfelt in each of the first three periods on the way to the victory. A game earlier, the Panthers were up by two in a low-scoring battle against Mountain View before getting outscored 15-10 in the fourth to lose by three points. The clubs were tied 6-6 after a period, and the Panthers led by a point at the half, 11-10. Prospect upped its lead to 17-15 by the end of the third quarter, but ended up losing to the Spartans. Turner led the Panthers with 15 points, but he was the only Prospect player in twin figures. Sharpe had five points, Spratling three and Slaven Moro two. Sharpe and Spratling each hit three-pointers. The Panthers will visit Pioneer for a nonleague game on Dec. 15, 7 p.m., before taking part in the Saratoga Tournament Dec. 17-19. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 16, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.