DAVIS, Calif. – Senior guard Sydney Teoh drained four three-pointers en route to a team-leading 26 points while sophomore post Layla Hernandez scored 10 of her career-best 14 points in the third period, helping St. Francis flip a 10-point halftime deficit into a 60-56 win at Davis in the girls' opener of a Sierra Foothill League basketball doubleheader Friday night.
The Troubadours close out their regular season with a 12-16 overall record, with a 6-8 mark in league play. The Blue Devils slip to 16-12 for the year, evening their SFL ledger to 7-7.
Teoh shot 8-for-18 from the field with a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line for her sixth 20-plus scoring game of her swan song season. Hernandez, who doubled her previous best, made 7 of 9 from the floor with seven rebounds. Junior Lexi London added another 10 points, while sophomore Tayli Paeu-Lindgren narrowly missed another double-double by finishing with eight points, a team-high 11 rebounds and four steals.
Except for a 12-second stretch in the first period and another 45-second span early in the second, St. Francis trailed for the entire first half. Davis freshman phenom Lorelei Nachman drained two of her team's four three-pointers in the first frame, then back-to-back bombs late in the second to lift the Blue Devils to a 41-31 halftime lead.
Teoh buried a three-pointer on a Laila Mendoza dish in the waning seconds of the first period to close the gap to 21-17, then each player sank mid-range shots to even the score at 21-21 in the first minute into the second. Teoh's drive along the right edge of the key gave SF a 23-21 lead at the 6:41, prompting Davis to call a timeout. The Blue Devils responded to that break with a 12-2 run, with Sonia Clayton scoring a three-point play off a missed second free throw, dropping a low-post shot at the :450 mark, then converting a Nachman assist with 4:04 remaining to extend the Davis lead to 34-25.
Teoh pulled up for a three-pointer at the top of the key to interrupt the Blue Devils' outburst, but Riley MacDonald's pick and roll followed by the consecutive Nachman bombs boosted the hosts to a 41-28 advantage. A London trey with 1:38 remaining before halftime reduced the deficit to 10, but then Isabella Cherry struck first with a drive a minute into the third, pushing Davis up by a 12 at 43-31.
Hernandez scored at the low post with 5:43 and drew a foul in the process. Although she did not make the and-one throw, it began what ultimately became a 13-3 overall Troubie comeback run. Hernandez put back offensive rebounds at 3:53, 3:00 and 2:18 in the third period, then finished a Teoh assist with 1:20. Hernandez accounted for every SF point in the stanza except for Teoh's step-back three at the 5:07 mark.
St. Francis continued to roll into the fourth, extending the 13-3 run into a 21-5 overall stretch. Teoh put the Troubies on top for good when she drew contact at the end of a full-court push, then sank both free throws to set the board at 47-46 in her team's favor. Paeu-Lindgren assisted Hernandez for the second of two post-to-post plays on the next trip down, then Teoh slashed to the hoop with 6:08 and knocked down her fourth three at the 4:47 mark.
Teoh's final three-pointer gave St. Francis its first two-possession lead of the game, but prior to that, London had drawn a Nachman foul along the left baseline. That call was the fourth in the books for the dangerous Davis guard, keeping her out of the game for the next three minutes.
Even when she returned, Nachman missed the iron on back-to-back attempts from beyond the arc, then pulled her team right back into contention. She landed a runner with 26 ticks left to bring the SF lead to 56-53. Then after the Troubies got those points back on two different trips to the line, Nachman heaved a three-pointer from the 10-foot line of the volleyball court – perhaps as many as two steps beyond NBA distance. This cut the margin to just 58-56, but with only seven seconds remaining. Teoh handled London's inbound pass, drew another trip to the charity stripe, then made both bonus throws to complete the win with less than a second left.
Nachman finished with 19 points while Sonia Clayton contributed another 14 despite not having a field goal after the break.
St. Francis will learn of its Sac-Joaquin Section playoff fate on Saturday. The Troubadours entered Friday's contest ranked eighth among SJS Division II teams, with Christian Brothers, Del Oro, El Capitan, Whitney, Grant, Patterson and Woodcreek respectively occupying the seven slots above them.
