SHP Snaps Back in Fourth Quarter to Beat the Knights
Gators 39, Knights 34
See Full Story
It's been a rough stretch lately for the Sacred Heart Prep girls -- the Gators had lost five of six games in the West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division, with four of those losses coming after holding healthy leads.
So the seniors (Grace Battles and Tatum Angotti) called a team meeting.
"We agreed that we had to play with a lot more confidence in the fourth quarter," said 6-foot-2 freshman center Megan Norris, who had a great second half in Sacred Heart's 39-34 win over Menlo School on Thursday at Menlo.
"We had to play with more intensity on defense and slow down the pace on offense," Norris said of the team meeting. "We were tired of giving up leads."
SHP led 22-10 at halftime, but Menlo came back late in the third quarter to within 23-18 on freshman Avery Lee's 3-pointer. And the Knights came within 29-26 early in the fourth quarter on Mallory North's 3-pointer.
But Norris had four of her six points in the fourth quarter, and finished with four rebounds.
"We've lost some leads lately, even though we've been playing great defense," said Sacred Heart assistant coach Lamont Quattlebaum, whose team in now 2-5 in league, 12-8 overall. Menlo is 2-5, 13-6.
"The girls decided we simply have to score baskets. They did a good job of executing our high-low in the fourth quarter."
Lee led Menlo with 14 points -- 8 in the third quarter. Zoe Zaharias and Grace Florendo (nine points each) led Sacred Heart.
Elsewhere in the WBAL Foothill Division, Ila Lane scored 24 points, had 14 rebounds and blocked three shots to help Priory beat host Notre Dame-Belmont 52-50 and take over sole possession of third place.
Tatiana Reese added 17 points and eight rebounds for Priory (9-11, 3-4), which hosts Scotts Valley (8-13) in a nonleague game at 2 p.m. Saturday.
In the WBAL Skyline Division, Sammy Wong scored 24 points, including four 3-pointers, and Castilleja topped host Harker, 45-37.
Lauren Sibley added 16 points for the Gators (9-11, 5-3), who have won two in a row and six of their last nine to take over third place in their division, two games behind Mercy-San Francisco and three games behind league-leading Notre Dame-San Jose.
Castilleja hosts The King's Academy at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Sacred Heart Schools Atherton
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12
