Girls rally to beat San Marcos
Ramona High’s varsity girl cagers scored a comeback victory over San Marcos at home and lost to league leading Mt. Carmel on the road in Valley League action. The Lady Dawgs are 10-11 overall and are 3-3 in the Valley League.
San Marcos used its height and size advantages to muscle into an early 6-12 lead. The Lady Knights were dominating the boards and increased their lead to 10 points, 18-8, when Coach Erin O’Connor called time out.
“I told the team that if we didn’t start playing defense the game would be over,” O’Connor said after the game. “I said that if an individual didn’t start playing defense that she would be out of the game.”
The team listened and responded and made its biggest turnaround of the season as the players rallied and beat San Marcos 52-42 in the Dawgs House.
The Lady Dawgs hit five 3-point shots, but they were big shots and in one case a very long big shot. Felisha Stead hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to end a 9-point run for the Lady Dawgs to end the first period. The shot was a momentum changer and set the tone for the rest of the game.
Ramona held the Lady Knights to 5 points in the first half after O’Connor’s challenge and took a 29-23 lead at half. Ramona led 26-23 when Paige Conroy hit a shot from near the 10-second line to end the first half.
Conroy must have misunderstood O’Connor. She came out after the challenge and scored a season and game high 22 points.
“I just had a good rhythm and had great confidence,” Conroy said after the game.
Conroy grabbed seven rebounds and dished off three assists and followed O’Connor’s advice and had two steals.
Kellie Schoepp turned in another stellar performance. The senior forward registered another double-double as she scored 10 points, grabbed a game high 11 rebounds, stole two balls, dished off four assists and blocked a shot.
RaeAnne Van Tol came off the bench and contributed at both ends of the court. Van Tol scored 10 points, had three steals, blocked a shot and grabbed eight rebounds.
Tessa Balcom hit two 3-point shots and blocked a shot. Stead had one steal and two assists to go with her game-changing 3-pointer. Jessica Beam (1) also scored in the victory.
Mt. Carmel got off to a big first half lead and beat the Ramona 51-30.
Schoepp led Ramona in scoring with 16 points. She also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked two shots. Van Tol led the team with 11 rebounds.
Balcom hit two 3-point shots as she scored 7 points. Sheppard (3) and Stead (2) also scored for Ramona. Conroy and Robinson both grabbed four rebounds apiece.