Girls Basketball: Mustangs Ride Zone Defense to Victory over Granada

Monte Vista 45, Granada 30

The Star: Sophomore guard Angela Rigo scored a team-high 10 points, leading a balanced Monte Vista attack that had nine players in the scoring column.

The Turning Point: Monte Vista took control at the start, building a 9-1 lead. Granada never got closer than six points.

The Quote: "Offensively, we struggled at times. We got some good shots. The ball wasn’t going in the hoop. But that’s what we say. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in the hoop, but defense is going to show up every single night,” Monte Vista coach Ron Hirschman said.

What's next? The Mustangs are home again Friday night for a 7 p.m. EBAL game against Foothill.

Bottom Line: Granada never found an answer to the Mustangs’ zone defense. Monte Vista held the ice-cold Matadors to 10 points in the first half.

———————————

There are few secrets in sports. That’s certainly true when it comes to EBAL girls basketball.

Entering Tuesday night’s home game against Granada High, coach Ron Hirschman was well aware of the Mats’ season-long struggle shooting from outside.

So, Hirschman did what you’d expect. He had the Mustangs hit Granada with a zone defense and forced them to try to beat them from long range.

Did the strategy work? Are Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley rivals?

The Mustangs held Granada to four points in the first quarter and 10 points in the first half, building a 21-10 lead. They cruised to a 45-30 victory and improved to 2-1 in the EBAL.

“I was really happy with our defensive effort tonight,” Hirschman said. “We had talked about forcing this team to beat us from the outside. … We were fortunate tonight, they just didn’t hit their shots. They didn’t really have good looks, either.”

Granada coach John Radecke gave Hirschman credit for his defensive X's and O's.

“Monte Vista’s a very good basketball team,” he said. “I don’t care what year it is, they’re always difficult to play. They play that 1-3-1 zone. It’s a pain in the tail. It frustrates you.

“You’re holding the ball. You’re not doing the things you’re normally doing, and all of a sudden you look up and you’ve lost energy. We’ve got to find a way to solve that. Got to find a way because I think we play good enough defense to be competitive in the EBAL. I really do.”

Monte Vista wasn’t exactly on fire offensively, either, but it jumped to a 9-1 lead and took quick control of the game. Sophomore guard Angela Rigo drilled a 3-point shot to ignite the early burst. After Alyssa Samia hit 1 of 2 free throws, Rachel Tagle made a driving lay-in, putting Monte Vista up 6-0.

Granada finally scored when 6-foot center McKenna Daly, who had a game-high 12 points, made 1 of 2 from the line with 4:09 left in the first quarter. But Nicole Oliveira popped a 15-foot shot from the left wing, then Rigo hit 1 of 2 from the line, making it 9-1.

The Matadors’ Theresa Keaney answered with a 15-footer, and Daly made a free throw, but MV’s Sara Jensen capped the first-quarter scoring with an 18-foot shot from the left wing to put the Mustangs ahead 11-4. They led by 11 at halftime and by as many as 18 in the third quarter.

The Mats held Monte Vista forward Kaylie Williams, a first-team All-EBAL pick last season, to five points on a cold shooting night. But she rebounded well and played tough defense as her teammates picked up the scoring load.

Nine Mustangs got into the scoring column. Rigo led the way with 10, Tagle added eight, Oliveira had six and Taylor Fazio scored five.

“We know that someone different is going to step up every night,” Williams said. “We don’t really have one specific person we look for. When one person’s off, everyone realizes that they have to step up.”

“On this team,” Hirschman said, “we don’t have that one superstar that’s going to go out there and get us 20. So it’s got to be a collective effort. In the first half we had a lot of people with foul trouble, and we played 11 players, and there was really no drop-off defensively.”

After opening the season 7-1, Monte Vista hit a killer stretch in its schedule and lost four of its next five games. That included losses to Bradshaw Christian-Sacramento and Montgomery-Santa Rosa at the West Coast Jamboree and to powerhouse Carondelet, 60-42, in the Mustangs’ EBAL opener.

Since losing to Carondelet, the Mustangs have won two-straight EBAL games, beating Amador Valley and Granada.

“We’re getting it back together,” Williams said. “We had a rough tournament, the West Coast Jam, a couple of really rough games. But I think we’re really going to put the pressure on the last half of the season and we’re going to make a really good run of it.

“I honestly think we can make a great game with Carondelet and might even push for league. So look out for us.”

The Mustangs trailed Carondelet by just six points at half before having a disastrous third quarter.

“We played really well against Carondelet,” Hirschman said. “We played them tough. We fought them. … I think that gave us a little confidence.”

———————————

Monte Vista 45, Granada 30

Granada (7-8, 1-2 EBAL) 4 6 7 13 – 30

Monte Vista (10-5, 2-1 EBAL) 11 10 13 11 – 45

INDIVIDUALS

Granada (fg ftm-fta tp) – Daly 3 6-12 12, Keaney 2 5-7 9, Kettenhofen 2 1-4 5 Plantenga 1 0-0 2, Marriott 1 0-0 2. Totals 9 12-23 30.

Monte Vista (fg ftm-fta tp) – Rigo 3 3-4 10, Tagle 3 0-0 8, Oliveira 3 0-0 6, Fazio 2 1-2 5, Williams 2 1-2 5,  Dilworth 2 0-2 2, Samia 1 1-2 3, Burroughs 1 0-0 2, Jensen 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 6-12 45.

3-point goals: Granada 0. Monte Vista 3 (Tagle 2, Rigo 1).

Fouled out: None

——————————

Follow Patch Sports East Bay on Twitter