SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomore Chidera Okoye scored 11 points while Brianna McGahan and Nikki Sutliff-Soto each added nine, leading St. Francis varsity to a 52-33 win over Inderkum in prep girls' basketball action Monday night.
The Troubie junior varsity Gold squad also prevailed by a 61-33 final, thanks in part to 11 three-pointers, including four from sophomore guard Eva Karamanoukian and three more from freshman Sydney Teoh. Unfortunately, the JV Red had its game against the Tigers canceled, as IHS did not field a freshman team for 2021-22.
The St. Francis varsity team overcame an initial 8-2 hole by exploding for 18 unanswered from the midpoint of the first quarter to the 3:19 mark in the second. The Troubies held a 25-10 edge at halftime and a 43-19 advantage through three quarters.
"I had an opportunity to see them a couple of times, and they're very athletic," said head coach David Carmichael. "Our biggest focus was trying to keep them off the boards. We didn't do as well as I would have liked but we finally got our shots to fall for us. As I told them at halftime, everybody misses shots. Just keep shooting if it's there, and be aggressive. Then our defense picked up for us. We ran a type of zone and the girls are really playing well with that. It was a good way to start the Christmas break."
All of Sutliff-Soto's points came from beyond the arc, including a trey at the third-quarter buzzer. Chidera Okoye and Anne Sale also tallied four steals to aid the St. Francis transition game, while senior Oge Okoye had seven rebounds to help her team hold a 49-40 edge on the boards.
"What I was excited about is that we shared the ball. People got shots. Some of them didn't go but some of them did when we really needed them to," said Carmichael.
Both Raquel Smith and Zahra Smith each grabbed another six rebounds while McGahan and the younger Okoye had five apiece. Defensively, the Troubies held the Tigers to just 30.6 percent shooting (13 of 49) for the contest.
In the JV win, Eva Karamanoukian scored 15 points, all on three-pointers. Teoh and Sianna Squires tallied 13, and Emma Karamanoukian provided 12. The Troubadours led 18-8 after the first quarter, 41-18 at halftime, and 56-24 through the third before largely shutting down the offense.
The varsity team returns to action with a non-league home game against Rocklin High on December 30. The JV Red team competes in a tournament at Oak Ridge on Tuesday through Thursday, then joins the JV Red at the Rocklin Winter Tournament from December 28-30.
