The Santa Rosa Academy girls basketball team pulled off an exciting victory over California Military Institute on Thursday night, 37-35.
The Rangers trailed by 4 points heading into the fourth quarter, and CMI opened it up by scoring 3 points to extend the lead to 7. Santa Rosa continued to fight, though, thwarting CMI on the defensive end, before they finally responded, hitting back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to 3. Coach Shalimar Brewer then took a timeout to get her team to regroup, and it worked wonders.
“We have to lock in,” Brewer said she told them. “Now’s not the time to give up. We need 125 percent out there on the court and to rely on your team! I believe in every single one of you, so let’s go!”
Following the timeout, Santa Rosa hit another shot to cut the lead to 1. Behind their stout defense, they forced more turnovers that led to points, taking a 4-point lead and extending their scoring run to 11-0 with less than a minute to go. But then the Rangers had a costly turnover that led to a CMI bucket, cutting Santa Rosa’s lead to 37-35.
With possession again, Santa Rosa took 11 seconds off the clock but could not convert their shot, leaving the Rough Riders 4 seconds to either tie the game or win it. CMI quickly rushed the ball up the court and shot a contested 3-pointer which missed, but a foul was called. CMI now had three free throws with half a second left to steal the game back. They missed all three free throws, however, and the clock ran out, cementing the win for Santa Rosa.
After the game, Brewer commented on her team’s performance.
“I was very happy and proud of the team in the second half,” she said. “We locked in, played hard together, and executed our defense. It was great to see all their work in practice finally pay off, working together in unity.”
The game started off slow as both teams struggled to get anything going offensively. The Rangers then got on a bit of a roll, playing aggressive defense, which spearheaded them to an 8-0 run. They took 10-4 lead with about 3 minutes left in the period.
The Rangers could not extend their lead anymore, though. The Rough Riders responded to the 8-0 run with a 5-0 run themselves, cutting the deficit to one. A Ranger layup and a buzzer beater 3-pointer CMI put the score at 12-12 going into the second.
The second quarter went similarly to the first with both teams playing aggressive defense and forcing tons of turnovers. Each team took turns scoring buckets, making sure the game stayed close. Santa Rosa’s inability to bring in defensive rebounds did not hurt them, because CMI could not capitalize on the multiple second and third chance opportunities they were getting.
Late in the second, Blakely Chapman hit a 3-pointer to give Santa Rosa a 23-21 lead. It was a lead the Rangers looked to take into the break, but a costly turnover in the final seconds led to a CMI bucket, tying the game at 23-23 heading into halftime.
Chapman finished the game with 7 points, while Neima Moore and Mariama Jagne finished with 12 points and 8 points, respectively.
The second half could not have started any worse for the Rangers, as it took them nearly 7 minutes to open their scoring in the third quarter. Luckily for Santa Rosa, the Rough Riders were not able to meaningfully capitalize, being held to only 5 points during their scoring drought.
Finally ,Santa Rosa got on the board, with CMI responding immediately with a bucket of their own. The Rangers hit a free throw in the dying seconds of the third to cut the lead back to 4 headed into the fourth quarter.
The Rangers will be back in action Friday at Warner High School, looking to build on this big victory.
