Casa Grande girls outplay Analy, but lose

The Casa Grande High School girls basketball team did almost everything right except make field goals and win the game Monday night at Analy High School in Sebastopol.

The Lady Gauchos did what they do best - play suffocating full-court defense. That defense often made it impossible for the host Lady Tigers to get the ball up court, forcing 35 Analy turnovers. Led by an ultra-determined Joy Jovick, the Gauchos out-played and out-rebounded the taller Tigers in the paint for the entire game.

What the Gauchos didn’t do was shoot accurately. They missed many inside shots, and the 3-point connections that were so devastating to Petaluma in their 56-45 win over their rivals last week were missing in action. Casa Grande hit nine 3-point shots against Petaluma, but connected on only two in this week’s 45-38 loss to Analy.

Despite Casa Grande’s seeming dominance on the court, Analy led most of the way and, at one point, threatened to turn the game into a blowout.

Although the Casa defense forced seven Tiger turnovers in the first quarter, the Tigers looked like they might dominate the scoreboard early in the contest, jumping out to a 12-6 opening-quarter lead as the multi-talented Jenna Petray hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

Petry was a one-player force for Analy, scoring 16 points, and seemingly always coming up with a key bucket or rebound to stop a Casa Grande surge.

She was no more impressive than the Gauchos’ Jovick who refused to back down from either Petray or the equally towering Saja Spearman-Weaver. At times, she seemed to be the only Casa player able to drop home shots. She finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Casa’s defensive domination and offensive woes continued in the second period. The Gauchos forced 10 more Analy turnovers in that round, but had only one basket, a drive to the hoop by Jovick. Analy led at the break, 19-11.

Things looked like they might get out of hand midway through the third period when Petray and Sarah Brown sprung loose for back-to-back 3-pointers, swelling the Analy lead to a high-point 14 points (30-16).

A pair of baskets by Cassidy McKinney, who scored eight in the game, helped halve that lead to 32-25, going into the final period.

Suddenly the Gauchos found their missing offense. Back-to-back 3-pointers, their only two of the game, by Kayla Ryan and McKinney, combined with a pair of free throw connections by Jovick, gave Casa its first (and only) lead of the game at 33-32.

Petray hit a short jumper to give the advantage back to Analy (34-33) and the Tigers never trailed again as the Gauchos lost their shooting touch. After McKinney’s trey, Casa never scored again from the floor, although they did keep things interesting by hitting five of six free throws down the stretch.

It just wasn’t enough as the Gauchos lost for the first time after three impressive season-starting victories.

The Gauchos close out the pre-Christmas portion of their season Monday at home against Middletown before stepping into the highly competitive West Coast Jamboree, where they open against Chico on Dec. 27.