Sonoma girl hoopsters top El Mo in opener

Dragon Classic ?tournament ?under way|

The Sonoma Valley High Lady Dragon cagers opened up their season Tuesday with a 49-37 win over former longtime foe, El Molino.

The two teams faced each other twice a year for years when they were in the Sonoma County League. But with league realignment, those days are gone.

Sonoma jumped out to an early lead but the Lions trimmed the big lead down to three points, 20-17 by halftime.

But the Lady Dragons regained their composure in the second half and breezed to a 12-point win.

“The girls came out with a lot of good energy and really played well to what our game plan was and what we were focusing on,” said Coach Jann Thorpe. “We will need to work on our composure and slowing down during stretches of the game.”

Sophomore Sophie Lucchetti led the Lady Dragons with 13 points and also pulled down six rebounds. Senior Annie Neles had nine points and eight rebounds, while junior Shauna Johnston also had nine points. Junior Kennedy Midgley pulled down 14 rebounds. “Kennedy was huge on the boards for us,” Thorpe said.

“Overall, I’m very pleased with our team performance and look forward to building on this for the future,” Thorpe added.

The win gives the Lady Dragons a 1-0 mark on the young season.

The Lady Dragons’ 23rd annual Dragon Classic got underway Thursday and runs through Saturday in Pfeiffer Gym.

The eight-team bracket includes the Lady Dragons, Analy, Antioch, San Marin, Montgomery, Ukiah, San Domemico and Drake.

Thursday’s games, results not available at press time, included Analy vs. Antioch in the opening game. Ukiah faced San Domenico, San Marin faced Montgomery and Sonoma hosted Drake.

On Friday, the loser of the Ukiah-San Domenico game will face the loser of the Sonoma-Drake game at 4 p.m. while the Analy-Antioch loser will face the San Marin-Montgomery loser at 5:30 p.m.

Friday’s winner’s bracket will have games at 7 and 8:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the seventh-place game will tip off at 1:30 p.m. followed at 3 p.m. with the consolation champion. The third-place game will tip off at 4:30 p.m. while the championship game will tip off at 6.

After this weekend’s tournament, the Lady Dragons will be back in action Tuesday when they travel to Analy. And next weekend, they’ll be playing in another tournament at Maria Carrillo.

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