SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior Sydney Teoh and senior Brianna McGahan each scored in double figures for a third straight game while senior Chidera Okoye pulled down 14 rebounds, but St. Francis could not protect a commanding first-quarter lead in falling, 64-50, to Vista Del Lago in the varsity nightcap of a non-league girls' basketball doubleheader Wednesday night.
The Troubadours head into the Thanksgiving weekend with a 2-1 overall record.
SF's varsity loss followed a 30-23 JV Gold victory against the Eagles, in which freshman Audrey Bashore scored 11 points – all after the halftime break – to pull away from a low-scoring first half.
Overall, the Troubies shot just 29.0 percent (18-for-62) from the field with 21 turnovers, many of which helped Vista senior Ursula Chen amass a whopping 30 points. SF stormed to a 20-8 lead in the first quarter, getting eight points apiece from Teoh and McGahan, before Chen poured in 12 points in the second quarter to lift the Eagles to a 26-24 halftime lead. The go-ahead score to end the first half was a Chen three-pointer off a Troubie turnover in the backcourt, serving as a harbinger for Vista's second-half outburst.
The Troubies regained the lead in the third, and pulled ahead by as much as 35-28 within the first four minutes following the intermission. Teoh assisted sophomore Lexi London on a three-pointer, then Teoh knocked down a trey of her own on a dish from Laila Mendoza, making it 33-28 at 4:59. Continued backcourt pressure allowed McGahan to deflect a Charlise Cai pass. Okoye recovered the loose ball and popped it back to McGahan for an easy transition score with 4:49 to go, extending the SF lead to seven.
Vista responded with a 10-2 tear, getting three-pointers from Cai and Emma Lyons in the process, to reclaim the lead at 38-37. Teoh interrupted this stretch with a steal and bucket with 1:45 left, putting SF back on top, 39-38. But Lyons drew a shooting foul and hit 1 of 2 to equalize at 39-39, then her bonus free throws at 0:15 put the Eagles on top for good, 41-39. Then Chen bombed a 25-foot three from the right side over both Colleen Medina and Tayli Paeu-Lindgren in the final seconds, boosting the margin to five heading into the fourth.
Chen, Cai and junior Ella Skrzyniarz took turns scoring in a 15-3 run to start the fourth, giving Vista all of the separation necessary to seal the win. Teoh and Mendoza each hit threes in the final frame, while McGahan and Okoye managed second-chance scores, but SF could not reduce the deficit to fewer than 10 points for the last 5:22 of the contest.
Earlier in the evening, the Troubies and Eagles exchanged leads seven times in the JV opener. Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, with Reese Walker scoring five of her team's seven points in a 7-6 affair through 16 minutes. That tide quickly turned in the third, with Bashore taking part in four of the five SF buckets. She scored on a layup a minute into the frame, hit a corner three on an Annie Swanson assist at 5:30, returned the favor by setting up Swanson's three at 4:58, then successfully drove the baseline with 3:14 – the last of which gave the Troubies their biggest lead to that point at 19-13.
Still, Vista battled back in the fourth, taking care of business from the free throw line and finding a three-point stroke to take a 22-21 edge with 5:22 left. That's when Abi Hall, on loan from the JV Red program, scored back-to-back to push the Troubies back on top. Hall scored on a fast break to make it 23-22 for SF, then her pull-up from the right elbow bumped the lead to 25-22. On the next trip down, it was Bashore and Swanson yet again, with the former assisting the latter for another three, bumping the margin to 28-22 with 2:06 left in the contest. Bashore then broke double figures by hitting both bonus free throws in the final 30 seconds.
Swanson added five rebounds and five steals while running point for JV Gold. Walker finished with seven points and five rebounds, while Hall delivered 3-for-5 shooting, five defensive boards, two steals and a blocked shot in her second stint with the older Troubie jayvee squad.
St. Francis returns to action on November 29 for a road tripleheader at Del Oro, with JV Red at 4 p.m., JV Gold at 5:30 and varsity at 7 p.m. Tickets are available via GoFan at https://gofan.co/event/1251087?schoolId=CA22532.
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