In what was probably a first for the program, the Lady Dragon cagers Thursday beat Petaluma, and in doing so, finished the season with a perfect 12-0 record in Sonoma County League play.
Coach Jann Thorpe was proud of her team. “I’m very proud of the girls. They really work hard and it’s nice to see that hard work pays off.”
Thorpe asked longtime coach Sil Coccia, who was at the game, if he knew of any of the Lady Dragon basketball teams recording a perfect season, and he couldn’t recall any.
“I never know what the records are,” Thorpe said. “I wish there was somewhere we could look season by season.”
Now that they’ve run the table in the SCL – and are in the midst of a 19-game winning streak – Thorpe has to get her team ready for the SCL tournament that starts Thursday.
As the top seed, the Lady Dragons will host Piner at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16. At the same time, the number two-seed Analy hosts number three Healdsburg. The winner of the Sonoma-Piner game will meet the winner of the Analy-Healdsburg game at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at SRJC.
In Thursday’s game against Petaluma, the Lady Dragons topped the Trojans 36-14 – but it wasn’t that close. When senior Kayla Field hit a three-pointer at the 2:45 mark of the fourth quarter, Sonoma’s lead was 36-9.
The Lady Dragons jumped out early and their defense kept Petaluma off the board until the 2:13 mark of the second quarter – almost 14 minutes. In the meantime, Sonoma ran off 15 unanswered points.
But the Lady Dragons hit a shooting drought and went more than eight minutes without a point in the second and early third quarters.
“We tend to go in some scoring droughts,” Thorpe said. “Not quite as long as the one last night, but it’s something we’ll continue to recognize and work on.”
Despite shots not falling for the Lady Dragons, they led 15-3 at the half.
Sonoma ended the drought at the 5:25 mark of the third quarter when sophomore Annika Ginter hit a bucket to give the Lady Dragons a 17-5 lead.
But when Field hit a basket three minutes later, that seemed to loosen the team up and they led 23-8 at the end of three.
The shots that weren’t falling earlier, started falling for Sonoma and they just kept piling it on in the fourth quarter outscoring the Trojans 13-1.
The Trojans finally hit double digits with a little more than two minutes to play. But the game was long over by that point.
The final was 36-14.
Field and junior Amy Stanfield each had nine for the Lady Dragons, Ginter had seven, senior Alanna Johnston had four, sophomore Sofia Vitale had three, sophomore Annie Neles had two and senior Katie Stovall and junior Sydney VonGober had one.
The win gives Sonoma a 21-5 overall mark.
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