Lady Dragon cagers in SCL title tilt

Sonoma County League’s last championship game.|

The Sonoma Valley High Lady Dragon cagers will be playing Friday night for the final Sonoma County League girls basketball championship.

And Sonoma will be playing longtime foe Petaluma, who will also be in the new conference, for the championship. The Trojans finished the SCL season 12-0 including two wins against the Lady Dragons.

Sonoma qualified for the title tilt Tuesday by beating Healdsburg, 30-27, in the opening round of the SCL tournament.

“It was a great game,” said Lady Dragon Coach Jann Thorpe. “A battle to the very end.”

Sonoma got out to an early lead and was up 10-2 at the end of the first quarter.

“We did a really nice job getting the shots we wanted,” Thorpe said.

The Greyhounds closed the gap in the second quarter, but Sonoma still held a 16-11 halftime lead.

The Hounds continued their comeback in the third quarter outscoring the Lady Dragons 10-4 and taking a 21-20 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“We were flat in the third quarter with empty possessions offensively and some fouls called on us that put them on the free-throw line,” the coach said.

Despite their offense woes, the Lady Dragon defense kept them in the game.

“Defensively, we did a really nice job taking away what they wanted to do. It was great team defense,” Thorpe said. “Alyssa (Schimm), Annie (Neles), and Kennedy (Midgley) did a really nice job taking away their best three players.”

With 15 seconds left, and trailing by a point, Sydney VonGober hit a basket to give the Lady Dragons a one-point lead at 28-27.

Sonoma then forced a turnover and Healdsburg was forced to foul. Sonoma missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Hounds grabbed the rebound and called a time out.

“We knew exactly what they were going to do and again caused the turnover,” Thorpe said. With two seconds on the clock, Annika Ginter hit an open layup to seal the win.

“The girls played so hard – and with so much heart,” Thorpe said. “The energy from the bench was incredible.”

VonGober led the Lady Dragons with eight points and she pulled down four rebounds. Sofia Vitale had six points; Schimm had three points and seven boards; Neles had five points, five boards and five steals; Midgley had two points; Ginter had a pair to go along with four steals and Sophie Lucchetti had two points.

“We’re excited about the win and to get another opportunity to play at the JC. We look forward to playing Petaluma a third time,” Thorpe said. “Last year we lost the title game (to Analy) so it would be nice to get have another go at it.”

Game time is 6 p.m. Friday at SRJC.

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