The Petaluma High School girls basketball team ended a decade of frustration Tuesday night, defeating Casa Grande’s Lady Gauchos, 45-38, in the Casa gym.
According to the best anyone could remember, the win was the first for a T-Girl basketball team over their rivals in 10 years. A quick check of the archives show that Petaluma defeated Casa, 27-25, at Casa Grande during the 2009-2010 season. The Petaluma girls who ended the streak Tuesday night were in kindergarten (some in pre-school) the last time their current school recorded a girls court victory over Casa.
The loss was particularly hurting to the Lady Gauchos, who fell out of a tie for the Vine Valley Athletic League lead with just their second VVAL defeat as opposed to eight wins. Overall, Casa is 14-9 on the season and headed to the league playoffs and on to the North Coast Section playoffs.
The win was the third against a league foe for the T-Girls with seven losses, and improved their overall record to 11-13. Because they have a winning record against Division 2 opponents (5-2), the Petalumans are also eligible for the NCS playoffs.
Casa Grande coach Dan Sack, who has orchestrated the Casa winning streak over Petaluma, was philosophical about the loss.
“We played hard and Petaluma played hard,” he said. “We had one of those bad shooting nights. We’re a young team and tonight our shots weren’t going down.”
Petaluma coach Jon Ratshin said Casa’s poor shooting was no accident. “We played strong defense,” he said. “We stayed in front of our player and we took away their shooters. The big thing was that we limited our turnovers.”
Casa’s highly reputed full-court pressure bothered the T-Girls at times, but Petaluma’s solid ball handling limited its effectiveness. The T-Girls unofficially had 18 turnovers, but the majority came in the final quarter when they were protecting a lead against the increasingly frantic Lady Gauchos.
Petaluma hunkered down behind a solid wall of half-court defenders, blocking Casa driving lanes and forcing the Lady Gauchos to fire from outside, where their shooting touch was missing.
Time after time, Casa was forced to take desperation shots as the shot clock blinked away. The Lady Gauchos were 3-of-27 from the floor in the second half.
Another key for Petaluma was board domination. Led by underrated center Rose Nevin, aided by Lilly Catarozoli and Sheriene Arikat, the T-Girls dominated the defensive boards, almost eliminating Casa second-chance attempts.
“Rose is unbelievable on the backboards,” said Ratshin.
Casa was further hampered by not having sparkplug point guard Sophia Gardea available.
Despite their troubles, the Gauchos made it an exciting battle, rallying from 11 points down at the start of the final period to pull to within three at 41-38, just two minutes from the finish. A pair of clutch free throws by Arikat ended the threat and Petaluma managed to hold on to satisfaction.
The teams played even through the first half with Casa’s Trinity Merwin beginning an outstanding game to lead the Lady Gauchos to a 14-11 lead. Merwin, who was to lead Casa’s fourth-quarter charge, finished with a game-high 18 points.
Kailegh Pate, Arikat and Lilah Bacon kept the T-Girls close with 3-point connections.
Cassie Llaverias and Merwin hit treys of their own in the second quarter as Casa reached halftime with a 22-21 lead.
Casa Grande’s shooting woes combined with the Petaluma defense decided the game in the third quarter when the Lady Gauchos scored just four points.
Accurate free-throw shooting from Arikat and Nevin and a pair of clutch 3-pointers from Kassidy Bacon, one banked off the backboard, gave Petaluma a seeming commanding 37-26 lead going into the final round.
But Casa Grande hasn’t built its successful season on give-up, and the Lady Gauchos made things more than interesting as the last eight minutes dragged through 14 free throws. Ten were taken by the Gauchos as they finally battled through the Petaluma defenses to the hoop, drawing legitimate fouls.
Merwin led the charge, earning six free tries and hitting all of them.
With two minutes left, Emma Reese drained a trey and Casa had narrowed the gap to 41-38.
That was as close as Casa could get. Arikat sealed the deal with her two free shots a minute before the finish and Taylor Iacopi added an inside shot for further insurance.
Casa’s offense was pretty much carried by Merwin, although Samantha Dedrickson quietly scored eight and Llaverias added six.
Petaluma had contributions from just about the entire roster with nine T-Girls scoring, led by Arikat with 13. Bacon, Nevin and sophomore Iacopi each scored six.
The regular season wraps up for both teams Thursday and Monday with Petaluma finishing at home by hosting Napa on Thursday and Sonoma Valley on Monday.
Casa Grande goes to Justin-Siena on Thursday and wraps up at home Monday against Napa.
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