Giants fall in semifinals of Gilcrest women's basketball tournament

By Nick Giannandrea

COS ATHLETICS

Against the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association state No. 2-ranked team, College of the Sequoias could ill afford an off shooting night.

But the No. 19 Giants were even cooler than the 41-degree Visalia weather while losing to Butte 73-55 during the semifinals of the 46th annual Gilcrest Invitational on Dec. 1 at Porter Field House.

Sequoias shot 31.3 percent (20 of 64) from the field against Butte a night after shooting 36.8 percent (21 of 57) during a 62-51 win over No. 14 Ventura. 

The Giants (7-4) entered the Gilcrest shooting at a 40 percent clip on the season.

Against Ventura, Sequoias made up for its poor shooting from the field by drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line, where it made 14 of 26 attempts. The Giants only got to the line eight times against Butte, making six.

"We have some learning to do," Sequoias coach Doug White said. "They don't understand the fact that they can't keep shooting the ball when the ball is not going in against a team that is going to break us that fast. We have to get to the rim, and we have to get fouled. It's a hard thing to teach kids that want to shoot, because shooting is easy."

The Giants move on to the third-place game, where they will face No. 3 Mt. San Antonio (4-2) at 2 p.m. 

Defending tournament champion Butte (9-1) returns to the final, where it will take on No. 5 San Joaquin Delta (8-0) at 4 p.m. Delta defeated Mt. SAC 67-59 in the other semifinal.

Geizzle Jones (Bullard High) sank a pair of 3-pointers in the game's first minute and 7 seconds, then Kyla Wandick (Bakersfield) made a jumper with 8:05 to play in the first quarter as Sequoias jumped out to an 8-3 lead.

It was basically all Roadrunners from there.

Butte closed the first quarter on a 20-5 run to take command.

The Giants hit a low point in the second quarter, when they shot 1 for 15 from the field (6.7%), including an 0-for-3 effort from 3-point range, and made 2 of 4 free throws.

Butte outscored Sequoias 12-4 in the second quarter to build an 18-point advantage (35-17) at halftime.

The Roadrunners' lead grew as large as 27 points (56-29) following a Shade Satica layup with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter.

The Giants outscored Butte 24-17 in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late.

"I'm proud of the defensive effort," White said. "We've just got to fix the offense."

Jones led Sequoias with 16 points, 10 rebounds, four blocks, three assists and a steal.

Trinity Ferro (Corcoran) contributed 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Wandick was the only other Giant to reach double-figure scoring, finishing with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Sequoias also received six ponts, two steals and a rebound from Taylor Whitfield (Sierra Pacific-Hanford); fourpoints, six rebounds, five assists and a steal from Lucia Ricci (Seattle, Wash.); six points, six rebounds, two steals and an assist from Maci Chavez (Kingsburg); two points, two rebounds, two steals, an assist and a block from Anisa Torres (Caruthers); a rebound and an assist from Jacqueline Ruiz (Kingsburg); and a rebound apiece from Teresa Sandoval (Hanford West).

"It's a learning curve on this one. I told them the good news is we play Mt. SAC tomorrow," White said. "We're glad we get to play this level of competition. We're in it for the long haul. The thing is we want to win our conference and get into the state playoffs again. This is just a stepping stone."

The Gilcrest resumes at 10 a.m. Dec. 2 with the seventh-place game, which pits Los Angeles Valley (2-4) against Ventura (6-2) at 10 a.m. The consolation championship features No. 11 Chabot (7-2) against No. 7 Moorpark (6-3) at noon. 

In the consolation semifinals, Chabot edged L.A. Valley 82-80, while Moorpark rolled past Ventura 82-52.