After jumping out to an early lead, the girls’ basketball team beat the Alhambra Bulldogs on January 17 at home by a final of 67-50.
With this victory, the squad has won 5 games in a row, defeating Alhambra, Los Lomas, Acalanes, Dougherty Valley and Eureka.
The Bulldogs remained within striking distance for most of the first quarter, but by the end, the Cougars led by 7, 17-10. The 2nd quarter was physical and low scoring, as the Cougars only managed 7 more points. Alhambra only trailed by 3, 26-23 at the half.
Cougars head coach Art Thoms said that his team was underperforming in the first half, but turned things around late in the game. “I thought they weren’t matching their intensity,” he said. “We responded really well in the second half.”
Junior Rachel Sniderman said, “I think we could have come out a little stronger, put up a little more points, but they came out pretty strong, and they were better than last year.”
In the 3rd quarter the Cougars outscored the Bulldogs 14-2 in the first three minutes. In fact, Alhambra only managed 7 points in the entire quarter.
Sniderman said that the game plan coming out of halftime was to be more aggressive. “In the first half, they outhustled us, and outfought us. They were coming out stronger than us, so we had to come out and really take it to them. We definitely hustled out of halftime.” she said.
Alhambra head coach Sara Pippo said that the Bulldogs stumbled in rebounding the rest of the game. “Campo’s physical underneath the basket, so they killed us underneath the basket for sure.” she said.
Thoms said that he changed the game plan at the half. “We decided to back off on the press and challenge them to shoot.” he said.
Thoms praised the Alhambra squad. “They’re a physical team with a lot of heart”
With 5:01 left in the 4th quarter, freshman Brooke Panfili hit a 3 to ultimately put the game out of reach for the visiting Bulldogs, who then trailed by 16. Campolindo won with a final score of 67-50.
Pippo said that despite the loss, there was some good that could be taken from it. “We take every game as a learning experience. The good thing that came out of it was that they really did work hard. We’re trying to just teach them every single day.” she said.
The Cougars improve to 10 and 5 for the season.
