Rio Lindo Adventist girls roll to tourney title, stay undefeated

The Rio Lindo Academy Lady Spartans' basketball season is off to a great start, sporting a 6-0 record entering the holiday portion of the campaign.

 After two non-conference victories in November, the Spartans made the trip east to Angwin and won the Pacific Union College Prep Tournament for Adventist high schools.

They made their first statement by defeating Napa Christian's Knights  47-17, led by Lisa Marxmiller's 14 points and 15 rebounds. She got plenty of help from Seraphie Allen's 13 points and 10 rebounds. Keila Creed had 12 points and nine boards.

In the second round, the Spartans were matched with the Paradise Adventist Academy Cougars and rolled, 42-30.

Allen led the way with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Christine Woods chipped in with 11 points. Lisa Marxmiller grabbed 16 rebounds.

The Spartan's got off to a slow start against Lodi Academy and were behind 7-2 after three minutes. After a timeout, Titans didn't  score again until the second half when they trailed, 20-7 en route to falling to the Spartans 40-23.

Allen led the scoring again with 16 points. Woods added eight. Creed grabbed 14 rebounds and scored four points. Marxmiller had 10 rebounds and six points.

The victory set the stage for the championship game against the Sacramento Adventist Capitals.

The Capitals were a smaller, but very quick team. They put a lot of pressure on Allen and kept her in check in the first half and for the last three quarters used a full-court press.

 However, Woods took over scoring 13 of her 21 points in first half. Rio led 30-17 at intermission.

When the second half began the Capitals hit three 3-point shots to move with two points in the first three minutes of the third quarter.

 "I called a timeout and told the girls we were going to stick with our game plan and not open up our defense," Rio Lindo head coach Brad Benson said. "I was confident they could not keep hitting the long shots."

The Spartans scored the next six points and never looked back winning the game, 60-43.

Woods lead all scorers with 21. Allen scored 19 and had 14 rebounds picking up her fourth double-double of the season. Marxmiller had 12 points, nine blocked shots and eight rebounds. Marxmiller and Allen were both named to the all-tournament team.

Allen leads the team with 18 points and 11 rebounds per game as the Spartans prepare to return to action on Jan. 5 at Pacific Union College Prep.