LOOMIS, Calif. – Sophomore post Chidera Okoye scored a team-leading 12 points while junior guard Jadyn Weaver added another 10, but St. Francis fell just shy of an upset of Del Oro, falling by a 42-40 final in a non-league girls' varsity basketball game Monday night.
The Troubadours entered the final quarter in a 38-25 hole then held the 19-4 Golden Eagles to just four points in that closing period.
Weaver sank a pair of three-pointers as part of her offensive output while Okoye hit 1 of 2 from long range. However, the remainder of the SF team shot 0-for-14 from three-point range, part of a 27.3 team field-goal percentage of the game. Furthermore, the Del Oro committed only five turnovers to offset the Troubies' 39-31 rebounding edge.
Prior to the varsity contest, Sianna Squires scored 18 points – including 12 in the second half – to help the Troubies' JV Gold turn a nine-point deficit midway through the third quarter into a 52-42 victory.
Del Oro led for most of the contest, holding a 21-13 edge after the first quarter and a 29-21 lead late in the second. St. Francis scored some late buckets to close the gap to 31-25 at the break, but fell further behind to as much as 36-27 at the four-minute mark of the third frame.
However, Squires drained a three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to trim the deficit to just 40-37 entering the fourth. Sydney Teoh and Mackenzie Tan each connected from beyond the arc to start that final stanza, putting SFHS up by a 43-40 margin with 6:55 left in the game.
In all, from Squires' trey to end the third and the final seconds of the fourth, the Troubies scored 18 unanswered points to flip the 40-34 hole into the 10-point winning margin.
"Big shoutout to Sianna who changed the game with her defense, creating turnovers and hitting big shots," said head JV Gold coach Melissa Triebwasser. "Syd didn't score a ton but she made play after play handling the ball and getting people in spots."
Teoh, who hit another three as part of that fourth-quarter outburst, finished with eight total points. Emma Karamanoukian scored nine, all in the first quarter. The JV Gold has now won nine of its last 10 games, improving to 17-4 overall.
In Monday's early contest, Lilian Vicio scored seven points while Alexis Heise and Sydney Chow each added six as the St. Francis JV Red squad suffered a 37-20 loss to the Golden Eagles frosh team. This marked the first action in 10 days for the all-freshman Trouble team, which slips to 11-4 for the year.
The SFHS varsity and JV Gold teams return to action on Wednesday for a Delta League home doubleheader with Cosumnes Oaks. JV Red will take on Folsom on Friday as a lead-in to the Franklin home twinbill.
