GIRLS: Vaqueros win, Matadors cruise

By Ramon Scott
Updated: December 16, 2019

2019 EAST COUNTY PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL

EastCountySports.com staff report

LAKESIDE – The El Capitan Vaqueros came into the 2019-20 season with pretty high expectations but a series of injuries has the team off to a sub-.500 start.

However, the team is starting to put its pieces back together and it showed in a 58-46 win over Olympian on Saturday.

Mackenzie Curtis scored 30 points for El Capitan, which improved to 4-5.

Emma Driskill added 10 points for El Capitan.

“We have had two games at full strength this season,” El Capitan head coach Darin Curtis said. “Our defense is night and day between our teams in the past. We can get up and defend this year and it is the only thing we have focused on.”

Tiffany Bickford added eight points for the Lady Vaqueros.

“I have grown some but not a lot of people would expect me to rebound as well as I do,” Bickford said. “Last year, we weren’t the best defensive team but we’ve been working on it and now I can honestly say our defense has saved us from us losing or getting blown out.

Bickford, the daughter of a successful coach, knows the roles are important to the complete success of the her team.

“I take a lot of pride in being able to become a good rebounder even though I’m a guard. Before every game, we write down all of our individual goals for the game and mine is always about getting rebounds because I truly care about us securing the ball so we can set up our offense and I know rebounding can win games.

“We all have our basic role on the team of what we can do. I just promised myself last year that I wanted to help the team as much as I can so that is why I really work on defense because that is what we need, also last year my only job was really to shoot but this year I have really been working on my inside game and getting to the basket or basically anything inside the three-point line.”

Shiana Peres and Jacy Danks both had four points for El Cap.

“Shiana Peres is absolutely holding us together,” Darin Curtis said. “Shi might be one of our most important players when you talk about the importance of what she does and her role on the team.”

Junior Gracie Thorn added two points for the Vaqueros.

“Everyone does something the best on our team so we can always count on them doing that job,” Darin Curtis said. “It feels so good just to be focusing on us this year, and what we have to do. We are putting our head down and grinding.”

El Capitan will play Poway next on Thursday, Dec. 26 at the So Cal Holiday Tourney in Lakeside.

MOUNT MIGUEL 78, PATRICK HENRY 7 – At the Matador Classic, freshman Jennifer Moreno scored 34 points, handed out nine assists and made nine steals in a one-sided decision against the winless Patriots.

Jacquee Brown contributed 22 points, had three steals and a pair of boards for Mount Miguel, which improved to 6-1 overall.

Freshman Zanna Hurst went for 18 points, had six rebounds, dished out three assists and recorded three steals.

Matador Angelana Detate added four points and a pair of rebounds, while teammate Jerzey Edmonds had nine steals, a pair of rebounds, and two assists.

FOOTHILLS CHRISTIAN 69, VALHALLA 29 – The Knights won at the Crawford Tournament as sophomore Nataly Bravo led Foothills Christian with 25 points and five steals.

Senior Ellie Turk added 18 points, eight assists, and four steals for FCHS, while junior teammate Arantxa Fonseca came home with 12 points, five steals, six assists, three blocked shots, and eight rebounds.

Junior Carolina Burke finished with six points, five steals, three blocked shots, and six rebounds for the Knights.

The Knights will face Helix on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in a Crawford Tournament contest.

POINT LOMA 66, GROSSMONT 44 – Senior Sarah Henry scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds for Grossmont

Senior Alex Purnell came home with nine points and nine rebounds for the Hillers.

Junior Chargualaf had seven points and five rebounds for the Foothillers.

Grossmont trailed 21-16 after one quarter and 32-22 at halftime.

The Foothillers fell to 3-4 overall.

Grossmont is back in action on Jan. 2 when it hosts Clairemont in the Hillers New Year’s Tip-Off.

SAN DIEGO 50, WEST HILLS 44 – The Wolf Pack jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game but eventually fell to the Cavers.

It was the first loss of the season for the Wolf Pack, who fell to 6-1.

West Hills trailed 9-8 after the first quarter despite the quick start. It was 19-16 in favor of the Cavers at halftime.

However, San Diego came out big in the third quarter, outscoring West Hills, 21-10, to take command.

Caitlyn Stayner led West Hills with 13 points, including a three-pointer in the fourth quarter.

Katie Caires added 10 points for the Wolf Pack.

Anastasia Timothy scored eight points, six of which came in the third quarter.

Senior Paige Evans had a three-pointer in the first quarter as part of the good start for West Hills.

“I was very proud of our girls for the 7-0 start but tonight was one of our first challenges and we didn’t do what we needed to do,” West Hills head coach Ryan Kinser said. “We play them in a week so maybe we will rebound and play better.”

EASTLAKE 45, HELIX 41 – The Highlanders fell to 3-2 after dropping to the Titans in the Crawford Winter Classic.

Editor’s Note: Don’t see your team’s result or highlights, don’t be left out, send a pic of your scorebook and stat sheet, or text information, scores and stats to 619-300-9868.

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