It’s a rebuilding year for the Santa Clara Bruins varsity girls’ basketball team. For the MacDonald Condors, it’s simply a building year, its first ever at the varsity level.
The two new cross-town rivals linked up Friday, Jan. 17, on the MacDonald hardwood floor. Through the first four minutes of action, the game appeared to be an evenly matched battle between the two Santa Clara schools.
MacDonald actually opened the scoring with a bucket from Nyataba Liah, one of the Condors’ three captains. Midway through the first quarter, the game was tied at 4-4.
Unfortunately for MacDonald supporters, Liah would end up in early foul trouble. Santa Clara capitalized on the advantage of Liah on the bench, finishing the quarter on a 10-1 run.
Keying the early offense for the Bruins was the trio of Victoria Calvillo, Averie Lopez and Jackie Aochi. Calvillo’s speed allowed her to get to the free throw line repeatedly, while Lopez banked home a mid-range bucket and Aochi drained a deep two as part of the Bruins’ first quarter barrage of points.
Santa Clara never looked back from there, cruising to a 48-11 victory.
“We’ve been struggling as of late because we are a pretty young team,” remarked Bruins Head Coach Deedee Kiyota. “So, any kind of win was big for this team.”
“I’m really proud of my team and it’s cool to see the plays that we run in practice translate into the game,” chimed Aochi. “Just seeing things come together is fun and exciting.”
“I think that we did really well. We know this is a rebuilding season for us, and we’ve had a lot of struggles in prior games,” acknowledged Lopez. “I think for this game we finally executed the way we wanted to.”
On the flip side, the Condors were more upbeat than one might expect, also knowing that they are still building a brand new program.
“We had great energy going into the game. It was one of our biggest games of the year,” noted junior guard Talya Sayan. “Everyone came out to support.”
The crowd support was indeed noticeable for a first-year team that has seen its fair share of growing pains. That didn’t stop the student and family support for a game against their natural cross-town rivals.
“It was really awesome because normally people don’t go to the girls’ basketball games as much,” noted Agelynn Pangilinan. “Just to see the crowd, especially when you make a point, and everyone is just there cheering you on, it gives you that confidence.”
“I’m really proud of the way the girls played,” commented MacDonald Head Coach Gil Vasquez. “If you look at all four quarters, we didn’t give up the whole time. It would have been easy to turn on each other and get down. We kept going with a lot of good energy.”
Seven of the Condors’ 11 points were scored by junior Lauren Lingrad. Bruins’ freshman center Rhia Swaminath also delivered a strong performance for Santa Clara.
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