Willow Glen Resident
Sports
Willow Glen girls split in first week of league
By Brad Wall
After dropping six games to open the season, the Willow Glen girls basketball team has gone on a 3-3 run over their last six, concluding with a split of their first two league games.
In their Tuesday night home game last week, the Rams (1-1, 3-9) locked up with Oak Grove (1-1, 4-6) in a back-and-forth slugfest that was ultimately won by the Eagles 54-52. In what was an exciting contest, neither team was able to push its advantage to more than 10 points.
"The girls played tough throughout all four quarters, but a few mental mistakes at the end of the game resulted in a two-point loss," said Willow Glen head coach Amy Gannon.
The strength of the Rams is in their backcourt as evidenced by the play of junior guards Hayley Tharp and Brittany O'Brien and senior guard Samantha Tsukiji. Tharp scored 19 points, Tsukiji 12 and O'Brien 11 as the three combined to score 44 of the Rams' 52 points. Tharp had five three-pointers among her seven field goals. Tsukiji hit a pair of threes and O'Brien had one.
"It is difficult when you have to solely rely on your guards to put up numbers," said Gannon, who added that the post players will have to find a way to contribute more.
Junior Daisy Quintero, a 5-foot-7 forward added six points for the Rams and Alyssa O'Brien and 5-foot-10 senior center Stephanie Serna had two apiece.
The Rams were up by a bucket at the first buzzer, 10-8, and stretched that lead to four by intermission, 24-21. But the Eagles outscored the Rams 22-17 in the third to take a one-point lead at 43-42, then topped Oak Grove 11-10 in the fourth to win by two.
The Rams rebounded from Tuesday's loss to grind out a 36-28 win at Live Oak (0-2, 2-11) on Thursday night. Once again, the Willow Glen backcourt led the way as Tharp and Tsukiji combined for 21 of the club's 36 points.
Two key factors to the victory were the contributions off the bench. Freshman A. O'Brien and sophomore Meghan Wilson both provided energy off the bench to help spark the Rams through Live Oak's plodding pace.
"[Wilson] is somewhat fearless against opponents and does a good job controlling the boards, while Alyssa [O'Brien] has great composure under pressure and is very versatile," said Gannon.
Tharp led the Rams with 11 points, including a couple of threes, a field goal and three free throws. Tsukiji finished with 10 points, with two threes among her three field goals and a couple of buckets from the line.
B O'Brien finished with five points, including a three, Quintero had four points, A. O'Brien hit a three, Serna had two points and Wilson added one.
Willow Glen opened up a convincing 18-10 lead by intermission, but the Acorns topped the Rams 14-8 in the third to cut the lead to four at 26-22. But the Rams pulled away in the fourth to win by eight.
Despite the slow start to the season, the Rams are starting to catch fire, having won two of their last three games. Also, their perimeter play has been solid this year as they have averaged five three-pointers a game.
"Though we still need to find a way to get the posts more involved, the guards have done a great job of maintaining themselves as a perimeter threat," said Gannon.
After a road date against Silver Creek on Jan. 9, the Rams will play back-to-back home games. Mt. Pleasant comes to Willow Glen on Jan 11 followed by Independence on Jan 16. Both games are at 7 p.m.
