The Palo Alto girls’ basketball team extended its flawless league record to 11-0 Wednesday night after a 58-37 victory over Los Gatos (7-4). The win was bittersweet for the Lady Vikes; it brought them one step closer to obtaining the No. 1 in Central Coast Section but it was also the last night the squad’s four seniors, Sidney Davis (’11), Katerina Peterson (’11), Mariah Philips (’11) and Mary Albertolle (’11) would don the green and white in the Paly gym.
Philips lit up the Viking offense in the first quarter, sinking two 3-pointers. She would finish with nine points on the night.
“It was senior night so I wanted to say my peace with the home-court with respect and play my hardest,” Philips said. “Luckily my shot was on tonight.”
The rest of the Vikes’ offense followed suit, outscoring Los Gatos 32-19 in the first half. With one minute remaining in the first half, the Lady Vikes’ defense rallied for two steals, putting the team ahead four points. Emilee Osagiede (’12) swiped the ball away from a Los Gatos player in the Wildcat’s offensive side of the court and dribbled the ball down-court for the easy layup. On the Wildcats’ inbound, Davis intercepted the pass and dished the ball to teammate Stephanie Allen (’13) for another two points from inside the paint.
The second half was more of the same. Philips came out in the third quarter with another three and the rest of the offense rallied behind her to give the Lady Vikes a 14-point lead going into the final quarter. Osagiede started off the final quarter in typical Lady Vikes fashion. Thirty seconds in, Osagiede snatched the ball out from under a Los Gatos player’s dribble and finished the play with an uncontested layup. The Lady Vikes would go on to score 12 more points in the quarter, finishing the game with a 58-37 victory.
Overall, Paly head coach Scott Peters was satisfied with the win and commends the girls for coming out hard despite the fact that they already clinched first place in league after their victory over Gunn High School last Friday.
“We had to play with our normal energy and intensity,” Peters said. “We got a little sloppy but they carried it through and got the job done.”
The Lady Vikes recognize that they cannot afford to get ahead of themselves. Although they are in line to take the No. 1 in CCS, they first need to focus on their last league game against Lynbrook High School on Friday.
“Right now we’re really looking one game at a time,” Philips said. “We’ve got Lynbrook next so that’s our priority. If we win that game we have the first seed in CCS, which would obviously be ideal. But if that game doesn’t go our way, we’re still going to take CCS just like we take league, go in, play hard, create chaos, play good defense, which is really what our team is good at.”
