SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Freshman Layla Hernandez finished with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, sophomore Gianna Seghesio drained three three-pointers en route to a game-high 14 points, while sophomore Annie Swanson earned all-tourney honors, as St. Francis bested Delta League rival Davis, 45-24, in the consolation final of Christian Brothers' La Salle JV Classic girls' basketball tournament Saturday.
The Troubadours even their record to 5-5 for the season, having posted a 2-1 mark at the CB tourney.
The 12 and 10 marks Hernandez' second straight double-double and the third of her season thus far, following the 11 and 18 she notched on Friday against Kennedy. In similar fashion to that win over the Cougars, Hernandez had most of her boards under the offensive goal (8-2-10), while Swanson pulled down 10 of her 11 rebounds under the Blue Devil basket.
Overall, St. Francis buried seven three-pointers – the three by Seghesio, plus two each by Swanson and Caitlyn Lee. In fact, it was a run of four straight treys in the second period that largely provided the Troubies with their scoring margin. Lee started the spree from the left side at the 4:52 mark, Swanson hit one from the right side on a Natalia Zitelli pass at 4:30, then Swanson set up Lee for another. Credit the backcourt defense for the opportunities, as Davis failed to advance past midcourt during that trio of shots. Finally, Seghesio made it four straight with her bomb from the right free-throw extended with 2:58 left. That 12-0 stretch left SF with a 26-12 lead
Lizzie David later helped SF bump the lead to 20 in the third. She converted an assist from Swanson with 4:34 remaining, then stole an inbound pass on the baseline for an easy bucket less than a minute later, setting the board to 37-17. Swanson finished the third with her second three-pointer, appropriately set up by a Hernandez offensive rebound.
The Troubies largely went into clock-management mode in the fourth, with Hernandez scoring all five points. She got into the backcourt defensive cause with a steal-and-fast break combo early in the frame, then delivered on a weakside putback, helping St. Francis maintain at least a 19-point lead throughout.
The entire weekend at the La Salle Classic came as a result of a program-wide effort. With injuries and final exams depleting the JV Gold roster to the point of a possible withdrawal from the tourney, several players moved to Gold. Seghesio and Lee came down from varsity, the rest of which competed at Del Oro's Mike Takayama Tournament, while Zitelli, Abigail Hall, Sienna Dukes and Lily Frei came up from the all-frosh JV Red team.
Even the coaching staff took part in the effort. With interim head JV Gold coach Kevin Bridgeforth in Loomis with the varsity team, JV Red coach Ryan Chisolm joined JV Gold assistant Melanie Perron to mentor the play at the CB tournament.
The two SF junior varsity teams return to action at Oak Ridge's Trojan Toss-Up from December 21-23.
