Mired in an offensive slump plagued by turnovers, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity basketball girls dropped their second straight Sonoma County League game following a 5-0 SCL start.
After being dealt their first SCL loss by first-place Analy last Friday in Sebastopol, the Lady Dragons played at defending champion Petaluma Wednesday night and, again unable to get their shots to fall, while turning the ball over 15 times – including nine in the first quarter –found themselves facing a 27-10 halftime deficit.
Despite an energetic third-quarter start, with hope of making an comeback, visiting Sonoma, which won the first meeting between the two longtime rivals, still couldn’t score. But the Trojan girls could score on their way to a convincing 55-29 victory.
Wednesday’s loss dropped the Lady Dragons’ SCL record 5-2, which ties them with Petaluma, also 5-2, for second place and puts both teams two games behind front-running, unbeaten Analy at 7-0, with five regular-season games left to overtake the Tiger girls.
The Lady Dragons are still in the hunt for a three-way share of the SCL crown. They need to win their final five SCL games and hope for Petaluma to beat Analy before they have to do the same in the their regular-season finale on Valentine’s Day Friday, Feb. 14.
Sonoma remains on the SCL road tonight, traveling to Forestville to take on El Molino, before returning home to host Piner on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
In their loss to Petaluma, the Lady Dragons were paced by junior Delaney Swanson’s nine points and six rebounds; junior Ciara Smith’s second straight eye-opening 10-block game to go with five points and six rebounds; senior Megan Neely and junior Shelby Camilleri’
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Sonoma’s junior varsity hoops girls let a nine-point fourth-quarter lead turn into a two-point deficit before rallying back for a 33-31 win at Petaluma.
Leading the jayvee Lady Dragons were sophomore Renee O’Donnell’s six points, freshmen Grace Cutting and Alanna Johnston’s five each, four apiece by sophomores Jenny Eggers and Raquel Darnell, and frosh Kayla Field and Katie Stovall, and sophomore Emma Stanfield’s one.
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