Sonoma Valley varsity girls split away games

The Lady Dragons basketball team took it to Elsie Allen earlier this week, then lost their momentum and first league game to Analy.|

The Lady Dragons basketball team took it to Elsie Allen earlier this week, walking away with a 64-22 victory over the Lobos on Monday night, Jan. 8, in Santa Rosa

The situation was reversed on Wednesday, however, as the Analy Tigers corralled the Sonoma Valley offense in Sebastopol to score a 50-32 victory.

Monday’s game found senior Alyssa Schimm scoring 17 points, supported by Sofia Vitale, a junior, who dropped in 12 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and 6 steals to spark the team.

“Everyone contributed on both ends of the floor,” said Coach Jann Thorpe, calling it an “all-around good team win.”

Annika Ginter was another standout on offense and defense, with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Sophie Lucchetti had 6 points, Erin Gylfe and Kaliyah Hensic had 5 each, Kasia Jacobson and Sydney VonGober both scored 4, and Kennedy Midgley got a single point on a free throw.

The victory evened up the Lady Dragons won/lost record to 6-6 for the season, and gave them a league-tying 3-0 record in SCL standings. But Wednesday night’s loss put them in the negative numbers on the season, and the resulting 3-1 record dropped Sonoma Valley to third place, behind Petaluma and Analy tied for first.

Wednesday night’s away game started out well for the Dragon girls, as they outscored Analy 9-7 in the first quarter. But the home team defense took over in the second quarter, allowing only 3 while scoring 12 and giving Analy a 19-12 lead at the half.

Analy increased their lead quarter-by-quarter, despite valiant defense by Sonoma Valley.

“The defensive effort and energy was there which kept us in the game for a majority of the game but the continued poor shooting made it impossible to catch up,” said the coach.

Schimm again led the scoring with 14 points and 7 rebounds, but Lucchetti and junior Annie Neles could score only 6 each, though Neles grabbed six rebounds – and an aggressive Ginter took away 7. None of the other Lady Dragons scored more than a two points.

“It was a tough night offensively for the Lady Dragons,” said Thorpe. “We were able to get to the spots we wanted to shoot from but could not get anything to fall.”

Still, the coach found the positive in the team performance. “We were aggressive offensively and had Analy in foul trouble much of the game,” she said, noting they got to the free throw line a total of 32 times though they only got 12 points out of the opportunity.

“We have to be able to take advantage of those times we get the free shots,” said Thorpe. It just wasn’t our night.”

Next game for the Lady Dragons is Friday night, opening a five-game home stand in Sonoma Valley against El Molino. The JV team takes the court at 6 p.m., and the varsity girls tip off at 7 p.m. at Pfeiffer Gym.

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