Girls Basketball: St. Joe's Can't Get Past Pinewood

Pinewood 41, St. Joseph Notre Dame 36

The Star: Ashlee Wood led the Pilots with 14 points.

The Turning Point: St. Joe’s led at halftime, but scored just six points in the third quarter compared to the Panthers’ 13. That was the only period that Pinewood outscored the Pilots in.

The Quote: “You girls did a good job of exceeding what we came out to play,” said St. Joe’s coach Julianne Berry to her team in the post-game press conference of defending Pinewood.

The Bottom Line: The Pilots come within a handful of points of their first state championship appearance in girls basketball history, but a lackluster third period ended up being the difference.

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The girls basketball team had never appeared in a Northern California championship game in the California Interscholastic Federation playoffs until Saturday’s matchup with Pinewood at Folsom High School.

A journey to a state championship, however, will have to wait until next year as the Pilots couldn’t get past the Panthers 41-36.

St. Joe’s coach Julianne Berry couldn’t have been prouder of the things her team did against Pinewood despite the heartbreaking loss.

“A great run for the Pilots,” she said. “We’ve never gone this far in school history. They left it all on the court.”

The Pilots failed to take advantage of an abysmal shooting performance by the Panthers, who shot 13-for-51 overall, including 8-for-38 from three-point range. St. Joe’s also couldn’t help itself, as the Pilots shot 13-for-41 from the floor and sank just one three.

Despite missing 30 of them, the Panthers scored 24 points from their three pointers, accounting for more than half of their final score, while the Pilots managed sank just one shot behind the arc.

“You girls did a good job of exceeding what we came out to play,” said Berry to her players about the team’s almost spotless defense.

Both teams locked the other down in the first quarter, with St. Joe’s pulling ahead 8-7 heading into the second.

The Pilots fell flat there however and the Panthers pulled away, going on a 10-0 run to take an 18-8 lead less than three minutes into the period.

St. Joe’s would respond with an 11-0 run to end the quarter. Carmen Lockhart’s put-in simultaneously ended the Pinewood run and started the Pilots’ with 4:50 left in the second. Ashlee Wood’s layup at the buzzer sent St. Joe’s into the locker room with a 19-18 lead.

But the third quarter would ultimately be the difference-maker. The Pilots mustered a meager six points while the Panthers scored 13. It would be a deficit that St. Joe’s wouldn’t recover from.

Down 37-30 with just three minutes to go in the game, the Pilots chose to let Pinewood bleed time off the clock, not enforcing a full-court press until the two-minute mark.

By then, it was too little, too late.

“We wanted to attack as much as we could,” Berry said. “Either way, they’re still good ball handlers. We went with it with about two minutes to go instead of three.”

Wood led the Pilots with 14 points.

“I’m really proud of what our team accomplished and I’m just sad to see it all end,” Wood said. “We’re a very good team and when we put our minds to it we can do anything.”

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Pinewood 41, St. Joe's 36

St. Joe's