Payback for T-Girls against Dragons

Payback can be sweet.

Petaluma combined some shutdown team defense with balanced scoring to hammer the Sonoma Valley girls, 52-29, and pull within a game of the conference lead in front of an appreciative crowd in the T-Girl Gym on Tuesday.

“I was very happy with our defense tonight,” Petaluma coach Janelle Robello said. “We gave up a lot of 3-point shots in our loss to them a couple of weeks ago, and that got corrected. The girls spent a lot of time locating 3-point shooters in practice and it paid off.”

Unlike the first contest between the two teams, most of the T-Girls, with the exception of center Allison Scranton, stayed out of foul trouble, and they cobbled enough offense to outscore the Sonoma County League leaders in every quarter.

Senior forward Joelle Krist continued to pace Petaluma in scoring with 16 points, and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. Krist looked to score in the second half when she knocked in nine points to help prevent the Dragons from mounting a comeback. When she couldn’t secure the rebound, the athletic Krist pulled the ball away from battling Dragons under the defensive boards. Petaluma held a 28-18 lead at halftime.

While Krist stacked up the numbers, teammate Cassie Baddeley was a difference maker with a complete performance in a game she wanted in the worst way. Her 13 points and seven loose balls went a long way in securing Petaluma a chance to climb the hill for a possible chance at a first-place finish.

“I was kind of angry that I didn’t get to play much at Sonoma,” she said. “None of us did because of all of the fouls. Tonight, we got the job done without fouling. I think they are really our biggest rival, and it was good to get this win and still have a chance for first place.”

Baddeley, who spends as much time battling for the ball on the floor as running the offense, also snared five rebounds.

Petaluma also got a big lift from reserve guards Emily O’Keefe and Kailee Silacci, who came in and stabilized the play around the perimeter. Both juniors made solid contributions, including three shots from distance by O’Keefe in the first quarter when the T-Girls surged to the lead for the first time.

Silacci made few ball-handling mistakes out front and on the wing with her pin-point passing, and found Krist open for a couple of 2-pointers when the game was close.

Junior forward Olivia Baldwin found her game in the final stanza when she accounted for six points to help Petaluma outscore the Lady Dragons, 13-8, down the stretch.

Sonoma punished the T-Girls in the first meeting with a series of 3-point shots in a fourth-quarter comeback, but the Dragons made only three in this one. Nonstarter Alex Hall made two shots from outside the arc for Sonoma.

Jenny Eggars finished with eight points for Sonoma. Coach Sil Coccia fielded a starting lineup with no seniors, and the aggressive Lady Dragons had many driving shots roll off the rim in the first half.

The job is just beginning for Petaluma as the T-Girls must turn around an overtime loss to Analy in the Tiger gym. A Tiger win over Sonoma would set up a contest between the T-Girls and Analy for the SCL lead.

Sonoma Valley and Analy are tied for the SCL lead with identical records of 6-1 while the charging T- Girls improved to 5-2.