Bulldog girls basketball takes 3rd in tournament
Ramona High School’s girls basketball team took third place in the Aztec Holiday Classic tournament played at Montgomery High School.
The Bulldogs’ 76-18 win Dec. 26 against Madison High School was followed by a 61-27 victory Dec. 28 against La Jolla High School. Although Westview defeated Ramona in the Dec. 29 semifinal, the Bulldogs defeated Scripps Ranch in the third-place game Dec. 30.
The tournament results gave Ramona a season record of 5-4.
The game against La Jolla placed Ramona coach Dan Marshall and one of his former players on opposite benches. Chelsea Maurer, who graduated from Ramona High School in 2009, is now an assistant coach for the Vikings’ varsity and a substitute teacher at La Jolla High School.
Ramona outscored La Jolla by a 14-11 margin in the first period but had a 17-3 advantage in the second quarter.
“We put some press on until the lead was pretty big,” Marshall said.
The score after three quarters was 45-24, and the Bulldogs scored 16 of the 19 points during the fourth period.
“They’re in a little bit more of a rebuilding mode than we are,” Marshall said of the Vikings.
La Jolla does have a player who is 6 feet tall.
“She was pretty good,” Marshall said. “Our big girls took turns on her and pretty much shut her down. Julia Plantz and Leah Green just did a great job.”
Chiara Mattern had 16 of Ramona’s points, Kylee Scheib scored 13 points, Green provided seven points, and Seneca Curo and Hannah Farhat added 6 points apiece.
Westview, which defeated Ramona by a 56-40 margin Nov. 28 at Ramona to begin the Bulldogs’ season, obtained a 62-51 victory Dec. 29 in the tournament.
“We got taken care of pretty good,” Marshall said. “They jumped us really hard in the first quarter and we battled back the rest of the game.”
The Wolverines had leads of 28-10 after the first period and 35-15 at halftime.
“The second half of the game the girls fought hard. I was proud of them not giving up,” Marshall said.
That second-half effort came against a stingy Westview defense.
“They’re guard-heavy, so when they get a lead it’s very difficult to get back in the game,” Marshall said.
Plantz scored 12 points against Westview, Scheib had 7 points, Green added 6 points, and 5 points apiece were scored by Mattern, Elexis Espina and Emily Sojourner.
The third-place game included an 8-point Ramona lead with a minute and a half to play before Scripps Ranch narrowed the final score to 46-44.
“They had some big threes at the end of the game,” Marshall said.
Since the Falcons were trailing, it was inevitable that they would attempt 3-point shots.
“We were trying to force them off the three-point line,” Marshall said. “It was working for a while, but they just moved further back.”
Mattern scored 16 points against Scripps Ranch, Scheib contributed 13 points, and Green had 6 points.
Mattern, whose statistics also included 23 points against Madison, was named to the all-tournament team.
“Chiara is a great shooter, one of the best in the county,” Marshall said.
Marshall opted against a tournament that conflicted with classroom finals, so the Bulldogs are participating in the Sweetwater New Year Classic tournament, which takes place the first week after the end of the academic winter break. Ramona’s games at Sweetwater High School include a contest against Montgomery on Jan. 7 and the tournament position final on Saturday.