McKinney helps Gauchos snap losing streak

Guard Cassidy McKinney broke out of a personal scoring slump, and paced visiting Casa Grande to a lopsided 61-41 win over Rancho Cotate in the Cougar gym on Monday.

A relaxed McKinney got off to a hot start in the opening minutes, and the Lady Gauchos joined with her to turn on all the burners to snap a four-game slide in the North Bay League.

A couple of 3-pointers and 10 points in the first half were just the beginning of the scoring explosion by McKinney as Casa rushed to a commanding 29-18 halftime lead over the young Rancho squad.Before she had finished, she had totaled a season-high 22 points.

While the junior point maker finally shook off the doldrums of low scoring, it was not a one-player operation for the Lady Gauchos, who took advantage of the impatience of the Lady Cougars. Rancho tried to match the long-range baskets of the Gauchos and things went from bad to worse quickly in the third stanza, when Casa tacked on a 21-5 point parade led by steady forward Joy Jovick.

Jovick tossed in nine points by driving past her defenders with strong right-hand moves to the basket. She also got into the long-range shooting parade by closing out the quarter with a bomb from well behind the arc at the buzzer.

The Rancho Cotate squad has made great strides this season (10-12) under the direction of coach Mario Newton, but this night was not one of them. The underclass-dominated Lady Cougars don’t have a senior on the squad, and their inexperience was exposed as Casa alternated pressing tactics throughout the game.

Full- and half-court pressure resulted in too many Rancho turnovers for the home team to crawl back into the fray. On most occasions, Lady Cougar shooters would hoist off-balance shots after only one pass on the offensive end, and it resulted in easy opportunities for the fast-passing Gauchos.

Hannah Sullivan came off the bench to nail three long-range shots, and got support from Mia Cain on the inside with six points when the Cougars tried to stop the flurry of 3-pointers. Jovick and Cain combined for a commanding 29 rebounds for the Gauchos.

McKinney eased back into a comfort zone by connecting on back-to-back 3-pointers as coach Dan Sack closed out the game by moving players in and out on change of ball possessions. McKinney had a season-high 22 points, followed by 14 contributed by Jovick.

For the game, the Gauchos again relied on 3-point shooting, with McKinney, Sullivan and Claire Killian alternating on bombs from the outside. Casa Grande converted on 12 shots from distance.

Casa Grande climbed back to the .500 mark in the NBL at 5-5 while improving to 12-9 for the season.

Reilani Peleti, a strong 6-foot junior, topped the Rancho Cotate offense with 12 points, followed by Camile Backman, who added 10. Backman, only a sophomore, leads the Lady Cougars with an average of 12.2 per contest.

The Rancho Cotate junior varsity team, with a trio of tall inside players, crushed Casa, 57-25, in the preliminary game. Things could be looking up for the Lady Cougar program in the next few seasons.

Casa falls to Carrillo

Last week, Casa lost a free-throw shooting contest to Maria Carrillo’s drive-happy Pumas, 53-49, in the Pumas’ lair in Santa Rosa.

The win was a spirits-rising triumph for the Puma girls, who had just one previous North Bay League win.

The game was marked by 41 foul calls, with Maria Carrillo building up just enough equity at the free-throw line to come out on top. For the contest, Maria Carrillo went 23 of 35 from the stripe, while Casa Grande was 18 of 34.

In between tweets, the game was intensely played with determination and defense from both sides, offsetting what each lacked in shooting accuracy.

Casa Grande never found the range with its often-deadly 3-point bombing, hitting only four 3-pointers the entire game.

The Pumas, for their part, missed a multitude of shots from inside the paint as they continually attacked the hoop and pretty much matched the Gauchos on the boards.

The Gauchos had to know it was going to be a long night when they made just one field goal and missed three of six free throws in the opening quarter.

As the ball bounced all over and off the rim at both ends of the court in the second period, Casa Grande finally dropped in a pair of treys, both by Hannah Sullivan, late in the half. A freebie by Sullivan tied the game at 14-14, and two more stripe hits by Jovick eased the Gauchos in front, 20-18, at the intermission.

At the half, Maria Carrillo had been whistled for 14 fouls and Casa Grande just seven. Those numbers evened out big time in the second half.

The third period was a Casa nightmare of missed shots and missed passes as the Gauchos fell prey to the press they have so effectively employed through the course of the season. While Casa was making eight turnovers and missing three foul shots in the period, Maria Carrillo, energized by all-court dynamo Claire Howard, took the ball to the hoop either counting baskets or drawing fouls. The senior finished with 19 points in the game.

The ball-hawking Maria Carrillo defense was led by guard Faith Dias, who had 10 steals in the game.

By midway through the fourth quarter, the slender contingent of Maria Carrillo fans was celebrating a rare victory as the Puma lead grew to 41-25.

Then came Jovick.

The Casa senior seemed to will the Gauchos back into the game, sparking the defense, grabbing rebounds, driving for points, dropping in free throws. She was all over the court.

She was aided in the Casa charge by a nifty bid of substituting by Sack, who platooned scorer/rebounder Cain with defensive specialist Destiny Williams. While Williams helped the Gauchos cut off the Puma scoring, the 5-9 Cain provided three key points to a 13-1 Casa run.

When Jovick aced three consecutive free throws after being fouled on a distance shot, the Gauchos were withing five at 45-40.

They never got closer.

Jovick led the Gauchos with 17 points, with Sullivan and Cain adding 10 points each. Brenda Soundara added 10 points to the Maria Carrillo total and Rebecca Plattus scored eight.

Casa Grande’s junior varsity won the preliminary game, 30-26, holding Maria Carrillo to three points in the final quarter.