Saratoga News

Sports

Saratoga girls win division basketball title

It wasn't going to take two victories last week for the Saratoga girls basketball team to clinch the championship in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

The Falcons could lose to Santa Clara on Tuesday night, and still claim the title with a win over Los Altos on Friday. They could even lose both games and still finish in no worse than a tie for the crown.

Saratoga, though, was going to have none of that. The Falcons wrapped up league play like the champions they are, crushing Santa Clara by 20 points 56-36, then wrapping up division play with a tight 52-48 win over Los Altos.

Kevin White's crew posted an 11-1 record to finish two games ahead of second-place Lynbrook (9-3) in the division standings. The Falcons are 22-4 for the year as they enter the Central Coast Section playoffs this week.

Monta Vista, the only team to defeat Saratoga in league play, ended up in fourth place in the El Camino standings at 8-4, followed by Santa Clara (6-6), Homestead (4-7), Los Altos (2-9) and Cupertino (1-11).

Despite their record, the seventh-place Eagles gave the champs all they could handle on Friday night, outscoring the Falcons 23-20 in the fourth quarter before losing by just four points.

Senior forward Nicole Gragnola helped hold off the Eagles. The 5-foot-8 forward pitched in a team-high 13 points, dropping 4 of 6 shots from the field and 5 of 9 at the free-throw line. She also ripped down four rebounds and had a steal and an assist.

Hanna Nielson, a 5-foot-10 freshman forward, supported with 10 points and six boards. She came up with three steals to go with an assist and a blocked shot.

Vanessa Guzman, a 5-foot-9 senior at the post, led the Falcons with eight rebounds and also chipped in with eight points. She blocked a couple of shots and added two steals.

Sheeva Hamidieh, a 5-foot-5 junior point guard, had seven points, including two three-pointers, and added four assists and three steals.

Senior Erica Baba, also a 5-foot-5 point guard, had a big night for the Falcons with six points, five rebounds, four steals and four assists.

Junior Ashley Cole and sophomore Baylee Yates added four points apiece. Yates had four rebounds and a steal, Cole two rebounds, two steals and an assist and Kattie Gasik two boards and a steal.

Earlier in the week, the Falcons destroyed Santa Clara by 20, opening up a 31-16 lead by intermission on the way to a 56-36 win.

Nielson led the Falcons with 13 points, including a pair of threes, and she dominated the boards with 19 rebounds--nine on the offensive end of the floor. She also blocked three shots, dished off two assists and added two steals on her biggest night of the year.

Sheeva drained 9 of 10 tries from the line and Baba hit 7 of 10 charity throws as each of them went for 11 points in the win. Baba had a team-high four assists to go with two steals and two rebounds, and Sheeva had two assists and a steal.

Cole had a couple of three-pointers among her eight points and added two steals, and Yates had five points, six boards and two steals. Gragnola had a team-high four steals to go with four points and four rebounds, and Guzman had seven rebounds and three steals to go with four points. Gasik supported with three boards.

Boys lose two

The Saratoga boys had a rougher time of it in the final week of the regular season. The Falcons lost 66-51 to Milpitas before finishing up league play with a tough 63-61 loss to rival Los Gatos.

The two losses left the Falcons 4-8 in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL and 13-12 for the year.

Cupertino won the division title with a 10-2 record, one of the losses coming at the hands of the Falcons. Gunn ended up second at 8-5, following by Palo Alto (7-5), Los Gatos (6-6), Milpitas (5-7), Saratoga and Fremont (1-11).

Coach Mike Davey's Falcons needed two wins last week to climb to .500 for the league season, but lost twice--the second one a one-bucket heartbreaker to the Wildcats.

Gatos led by three after a period, 16-13, but the Falcons held a two-point lead at intermission, 33-31. The Cats topped 'Toga 16-9 in the third to go up by five before the Falcons outscored the Wildcats 19-16 in the fourth, only to come up two points short.

Senior Keon Ghafouri had a big night for Saratoga with 27 points, including three threes among his nine field goals and six points at the line.

Andrew Capek finished with 17 points, including a three. Daniel Chou added five points, Owen Huang and Steven Walker had four apiece, Jamie Turley three and Chris Chiou one. Chou also had a three.

Ghafouri had the hot hand with 18 points, but the Falcons lost to Milpitas earlier in the week. Ghafouri drilled two threes in the game.

Capek chipped in with 14 points and Chou had two threes among his eight points. Walker supported with seven points and Chiou and Edmund Ye hit two apiece.

CCS playoffs

The Saratoga girls and boys teams will each play on in the CCS Division III playoffs. The Falcons open with a double-header at home on Feb. 19. The girls, the No. 10 seed in the tourney, host No. 15 Willow Glen (10-14) at 5:30 p.m. with the No. 10 boys to entertain No. 15 Hillsdale (10-15) at 7 p.m.

The winner of the girls' game will visit No. 7 Burlingame (12-15) on Feb. 21, 7 p.m., with that winner to challenge No. 2 St. Ignatius (17-10) on Feb. 23 in the quarterfinals at Notre Dame-Belmont.

The winner of the boys' game will visit No. 7 North Monterey County (21-6) on Feb. 21, 7 p.m., and that winner will face No. 2 Riordan (17-10) on Feb. 23 in the semi's at San Mateo.

Times of the semi-finals games are yet to be determined.