ROUNDUP: Gro-SC, WH-Hel, San-ECap

By ECS Staff
Updated: February 20, 2016

2015-16 EAST COUNTY PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL

By James McHugh
© East County Sports.com

RANCHO SAN DIEGO (2-20-16) – The Lady Foothillers of Grossmont High locked up a 7-1 Grossmont Valley League season and the No. 1 seed in the CIF San Diego Section Division IV playoffs, which start next week, by downing Steele Canyon 35-25 on senior night at Steele Canyon.

The Cougars never held a lead Friday night (Feb. 19) despite hanging around with the visiting Foothillers throughout the contest. JULES LOIBL led the Cougars scoring attack with nine points on the evening. Loibl also grabbed five rebounds. ASHLEY TAVIZON shared team high honors with nine points of her own. Scoring was well balanced for both teams, but with no Cougars in double digits, the Foothillers were simply too much to handle for Steele Canyon.

“Every game our strategy is the same, one game at a time,” Grossmont Head Coach GRACE CAMPBELL said after the win.

The Foothillers did get themselves into some foul trouble late, but also blocked 19 Steele Canyon shots on the evening. Some of the bad comes with the good and that reality is not lost on Coach Campbell. “Sometimes I have to tell the girls, pick your poison.

“Sometimes you can tell which shots you’re going to get a clean shot at and which ones you might block but you’re probably going to foul on. In this division there are a lot of fouls every game so they have to pick the right shots to go after,” Campbell said of the Hillers’ block party.

Grossmont received another solid outing from ATHENA SOTELO who led all scorers with 11-points and grabbed nine rebounds as well. TAISHA SILAS had nine points on the night for Grossmont by way of three long range connections.

LYDIA HALCOTT filled up the “other” stat section of the Foothiller stat sheet once again with eight rebounds and eight of the team’s 19-blocks.

The Hillers also got a nice spark off the bench by way of RAGINA TURNER who sunk both of her free throws, pulled down three quick boards and blocked two shots of her own. “Turner was a nice spark for us tonight when we needed it. We didn’t fall behind but we just needed that spark at one point,” Campbell said of her trusty contributor off the bench. “She did the job I asked her to do tonight.”

Unlike the Grossmont Boys team, Coach Campbell’s girls know exactly where they stand as the No. 1 seed in Division IV. The Foothillers likely first round opponent will be San Ysidro with an outside shot at playing Christian High, though the Patriots were ahead of San Ysidro after the Midnight deadline to submit scores Friday night (Feb. 19).

Steele Canyon could have secured a jump over league rival Santana with an upset victory over Grossmont. Instead the Cougars sneaked past the Sultans by way of the Hillers’ record which meant that SteeleCanyon received just one point loss for their loss to Grossmont on Friday than Santana received for their victory over El Capitan.

Steele Canyon now leads Santana in Power Ranking 42.33-42.32. The teams split their season series so a head to head comparison is not likely to cause the Sultans to leapfrog SteeleCanyon overnight. Currently the Cougars and Sultans sit at the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in Division III respectively.

Grossmont: Athena Sotelo 11 (9 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk), Taisha Silas 9 (7 reb, 1 stl, 4 blk), Candace Henderson 7, Lydia Halcott 7 (8 reb, 1 ast, 8 blk), Symone Griffith 6 (3 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk), Ragina Turner 5 (3 reb, 2 blk), Jazmin Lee (1 reb), Emily Barnes (4 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk).

Steele Canyon: Jules Loibl 9 (5 reb, 1 ast), Ashley Tavizon 9 (8 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl), Marianna Martinez 6 (13 reb, 1 ast, 4 stl), Bliss Montemayor 4, Mariah Smith 4 (6 reb, 3 stl, 3 bl), Mya Cross 3 (7 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk), Elizabeth Bott (1 reb), Kylie Minshew (2 reb, 1 blk), Marie Estavillo (1 reb).

WEST HILLS 55, HELIX 46 – The West Hills Wolf Pack upended Helix in Friday night’s (Feb. 19) Grossmont Hills League regular season finale to spoil the Highlanders’ Senior Night.

West Hills (19-7, 5-3 GHL) took command from the get-go as they toppled the Highlanders 96-15, 2-6 GHL).

MEGAN SCOTT paced the Pack with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds to go with 6 assists and 2 steals.

KERRIE DANIELS added 10 point and 8 rebounds for West Hills.

“We worked really hard on our zone offense during the bye, and I felt tonight it paid off,” said Wolf Pack coach RYAN KINSER. “The girls played really well.”

For Helix TAYLOR GARRETT led the way with 13 points, while CAM OWENS and DANIELLE SIMMONS contributed a dozen points apiece. Simmons was big on the boards with 9 rebounds and 5 blocks.

“We played a decent game the whole night,” said Helix coach PAT TABOR. “We just couldn’t get over the hump. That’s alright, tomorrow is a new day and everybody starts off 0-0.”

West Hills: Megan Scott 13 (11 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl), Kerrie Daniels 10 (8 reb, 1 ast), Maya Clemons 8 (2 stl), Jessica Fondas 6 (3 reb, 1 ast), Carly Raley 6 (7 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl), Vivian Panella 5 (3 reb, 5 ast), Clarrisa Holder 5 (2 reb, 1 stl), Summer Stewart (1 reb), Alyssa Garcia 2 (1 reb).

Helix: Taylor Garrett 13 (3 reb), Cam Owens 12 (3 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk), Danielle Simmons 12 (9 reb, 2 ast, 5 blk), Kaliah King 4 (2 reb, 1 ast), Taliah Hooker 3 (2 reb), Olivia Missouria 2 (2 reb).

— Bill Dickens, © East CountySports.com

SANTANA 44, EL CAPITAN 35 – Santana survived a sluggish first half in Friday’s (Feb. 19) Grossmont Valley League regular season finale.

Visiting El Capitan stormed to a 21-8 halftime lead.

The Sultans used a 20-5 run in the fourth quarter to deny El Capitan the upset victory.

“In the first half the percentage of our buckets were high and our defense was good,” said Vaqueros assistant coach ROCKY COOK. “It was a fairly close game until 2 minutes were left in the game.”

Cook was the only one who scored for El Capitan in the fourth quarter, scoring 5 of her 16 points.

Santana had 20 points in the fourth quarter.

El Capitan: Marie Cook 16, Taylor Fagan 11, Zanndra Ragole 4, Makenzi Kygar 4.