Sports
Girls Basketball: Eagles Tip Panthers, Claim NCS Finals Berth
Menez scorches Santa Rosa with her hot outside shooting.
Clayton Valley 52, Santa Rosa 46
The Star: Clayton Valley captain Karley Menez put on a spectacular shooting display, pouring in 23 points. She nailed runners, lay-ups, pull-up jump shots and also nailed three 3-pointers. The Eagles rode Menez’s hot hand early and often, as she accounted for 40 percent of their points.
The Turning Point: The Eagles clung to a tenuous two-point advantage over Santa Rosa at half and Clayton Valley coach Bernard Barnes thought his team played merely average in the first half. Clayton came out of the second half and turned up the defensive intensity by installing a half-court trap and their pressure paid immediate dividends. The Panthers struggled to maintain possession of the basketball as the Eagles rode the wave of tough defense to a 38-28 advantage deep in the third. The third quarter ended with Clayton leading by six and Santa Rosa never got any closer than three, eventually losing 52-46.
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The Quote: “I told them in the huddle you are 13 minutes away from playing in the NCS finals … who would have thought that at the beginning of the year? I tell them all the time, if you just play your game we are hard to beat.” — Clayton Valley coach Bernard Barnes.
What’s Next: No. 2-seeded Clayton Valley locks horns in the North Coast Section finals at No. 1-seeded Dougherty Valley.
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Bottom Line: The Eagles backcourt of Menez and Allen provided the offensive firepower while the frontcourt of Sarah Nelson and Molly Kommer locked down the paint and turned back Santa Rosa to earn their birth in the NCS finals.
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Clayton Valley’s Karley Menez streaked down the court for what appeared to be a wide-open lay-up but instead of driving to the basket, she decided to pull up and drain a much tougher 15-footer.
Basketball announcers generally call this a “heat check.”
“According to Karley, as soon as she walks in the gym she has it going,” Clayton Valley coach Bernard Barnes joked. “If she knocks down her first couple shots, she is going to knock down shots all game long. She had a lay-up and pulled up for a 15-footer … I knew it was going in. That is a lay-up for her.”
The Eagles fans watched and rejoiced as Menez, Ashley Allen, Molley Komer, Sarah Nelson and Gina Del Bene helped the Eagles to their 21st consecutive win and put together another gutsy team effort to roll over Santa Rosa, 52-46, in the North Coast Section Divison-II semifinals.
Wednesday night, half of Clayton’s gym was swamped with fans donning the Panthers traditional orange and black. The Eagles’ refused to let them shake their focus or confidence.
“Last year we jelled really well as a team but we had our differences. This year we are a giant family,” Menez said. “It definitely helped us advance and I am just excited to see what we can do together.”
The Panthers struggled mightily to contain the likes of Menez and Allen who combined for 35 points. Allen carried most of the scoring burden in the first half tallying 10 of her 12 prior to intermission, while Menez shut the door on any hopes of a Santa Rosa comeback with 10 clutch fourth quarter points.
Menez striped two threes in the final period and the second came on a miraculous leaner to push the lead to 46-38.
“(Menez) and (Allen) are just fantastic. Menez got hot,” Santa Rosa coach Steve Chisholm said. “They were setting picks for her, staggered screens for her up top and we were having a hard time fighting through it. She got some open looks off those plays and offensively for them that was the difference.”
But even while Menez and Allen had their way against the Santa Rosa guards, the Panthers’ forward tandem of McKennan Bertsch and Hannah Sourek managed to keep their team within striking distance.
Sourek had a tremendous game with 11 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and four steals, while Bertsch showed a soft touch and nifty moves around the rim on her way to a team-leading 16 points.
Sourek and Bertsch seemed to be an extremely potent duo in the first half and pushed their team to their largest lead of the game in the second quarter at 20-16.
Unfortunately for Santa Rosa, they only had leads in the first half because in the second half, coach Barnes “bigs” showed up on defense.
“We have been working really hard these last couple of months and its really fun and important to see it all come together,” Menez said.
Komer and Nelson combined to shutdown the Panthers in the second half with brilliant individual defensive efforts. Nelson had four blocks and three steals while Kommer had three blocks and a season-high six steals.
“I did no think their post players, as big as they are, were much of a factor offensively but defensively, that is a different story,” said Chisholm.
No. 2-seeded Clayton Valley will advance to the NCS finals to play on the road at Diablo Foothill Athletic League powerhouse Dougherty Valley. Both teams carry identical 26-2 records and all eyes will be on the match-up of elite guards with the DFAL’s reining senior MVP Rayven Brooks matching up with Clayton’s wunderkind Ashley Allen.
Clayton Valley 52, Santa Rosa 46
1
2
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F
16
10
12
14
52
Santa Rosa
14
10
8
14
46
Individuals — (fg ftm-fta tp)
Clayton Valley
Kommer 3 1-1 7, Menez 9 2-2 23, Gina Del Bene 1 4-8 6, Allen 5 1-4 12, Nelson 2 0-0 4. Totals 20 8-15 52.
Santa Rose
Daly 1 0-0 3, Brumfield 2 0-1 4, Phillips 4 4-7 12, Bertsch 6 4-5 16, Sourek 4 3-4 11. Totals 17 11-18 46.
3-point goals: Menez 3, Allen, Daly.
Fouled out: None.
Records: Clayton Valley 26-2; Santa Rosa 23-8.
North Coast Section Division II Semifinals, girls basketball, 3/2/11
