Casa girls out in NCS

A season of improvement and success for the Casa Grande girls basketball team ended abruptly Tuesday night when Ukiah’s talented Wildcats handled the Lady Gauchos, 51-36, in the first round of the North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs.

The loss ended the Casa Grande season at 18-10, a mark that included a 10-2 second-place finish in the Vine Valley Athletic League and the title in the first VVAL post-season tournament.

The win improved Ukiah to 14-13 on the season and earned for the Lady Wildcats the honor of traveling to Orinda on Friday to face No. 1 seed Miramonte, a team that defeated Casa Grande, 70-19, early in the season.

The Casa team that hosted Ukiah on Tuesday in the Coach Ed Iacopi Gymnasium was vastly improved over the team that was bombed by Miramonte. Still, it wasn’t good enough to contend with a poised Ukiah group led by senior Lani Lincoln.

“She is a special player,” complimented Casa Grande coach Dan Sack. Casa Grande held the 5-foot, 4-inch guard to eight points in a 51-46 Casa win during the regular season.

With the season on the line Tuesday, there was no stopping the Wildcat leader. She scored 16 points and skillfully directed the Ukiah offense, leading the visitors through the minefield that is Casa’s pressing defense.

That defense did cause the Wildcats some problems, resulting in 20 Ukiah turnovers, but the composed visitors just kept coming, grabbing an early lead with outside bombing and using their superior height to dominate inside throughout the second half.

Casa Grande never could get its own offense untracked. The staple of its offense - outside shooting - was off track, and the big Wildcat defenders made driving all but impossible until the fourth quarter, when the game had been long decided.

Casa ran its offense well with quick ball movement, but could not shake anyone open. The Gauchos were often forced to take what they could find as the shot clock wound down, and when they did put the ball up, it was usually one-and-done, with Ukiah grabbing the rebound.

Even as the tenacious Casa Grande defense was forcing Ukiah into 13 first-half turnovers, the Wildcats were compensating with timely hits from the outside, finding the range for four 3-pointers to grab a 19-12 halftime lead. Three of the treys were by Lincoln.

Only two of Casa’s first-half three attempts (by Trinity Merwin and Samantha Dedrickson) connected, although Merwin and Emma Reese were able to drive for a couple of in-close buckets each.

Casa Grande had a brief flurry in the third quarter when drives by Reese and Merwin, coupled with a hit by Cassie Llevarias, cut a once 11-point Ukiah lead to seven.

But the Wildcats responded by going inside to Simone Adams and Elsa Brown to reach the final quarter with a 36-21 advantage.

The Wildcats continued to pound the ball inside with Kirstin Johnson and Danielle Cunningham doing the scoring work as their lead grew to as much as 23 (46-23) before Casa finally found a way to score consistently.

The Gauchos’ tactic was simple. They simply played give-and-go with Merwin, handing off to the sophomore as she drove fearlessly down the lane. The procedure worked three times, but it came way too late to change the game’s outcome.

Merwin finished with 16 points.

After it was over, Sack reiterated a common Casa theme. “It was a very good year,” he said. “I loved the way we continued to get better.”