Email  Print

Lady Dragons rout Elsie, Healdsburg

Sonoma hosts Analy in home finale tonight, end season at Petaluma Thursday

Despite entering last Thursday night’s Sonoma County League game in Pfeiffer Gym as the highly favored team, Sonoma Valley High School’s varsity basketball girls still needed to get the job done on the court with a hard-playing and efficient effort.

After the Lady Dragons got off to a solid start and built a 13-4 first-quarter lead over visiting Elsie Allen, they continued to play tough defense, but hit an offensive cold spell and held just a 20-8 halftime advantage, before erupting for a 19-point third-period and wrapped up a 52-13 runaway win.

On Saturday night, the Sonoma girl cagers hit the SCL road as the favorite in their showdown at longtime league rival Healdsburg, which is always a challenging place to play, and they hoped to get off to a upbeat start and take early control of the game.

With their defense, along with their dominance in the paint, again setting the tone, the Lady Dragons built a 29-9 halftime lead, increased it to a 22-point advantage after three quarters, then left Healdsburg in its tracks in the fourth-quarter for a 54-26 victory.

Leading visiting Sonoma past the Greyhound girls were sophomore Delaney Swanson’s game-high double-double of 20 points and 18 rebounds and senior Ali Romano’s 17 points.

Thursday, the Lady Dragons were led past Elsie Allen by Swanson’s game-high double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds to go with a blocked shot; Romano’s 16 points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists; junior Madi Burningham’s four points and four rebounds; junior Giana Monterosso’s four points, three assists and one block; senior Kendall Ashe’s two points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals; junior Megan Neely’s two points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals; and senior Ashley Vail’s and sophomore Alexa Hall’s two points each.

Sonoma’s girl cagers will host league foe Analy in tonight’s home finale at Pfeiffer Gym – the freshmen start at 4:30, the junior varsity begin at 6, and the varsity play at 7:30 p.m. – and will honor their three seniors, Ashe, Romano and Vail, before the varsity tipoff.

If second-place Sonoma and first-place Petaluma win their games tonight, then their final meeting, and the end of the regular season, will take place at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, Feb. 7, in Petaluma, and the Lady Dragons could earn an SCL co-title with a victory. The Trojan girls beat Sonoma in their first meeting.