GIRLS: Knights win twice, Patriots roll

By Ramon Scott
Updated: January 3, 2020

2019 EAST COUNTY PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL

EastCountySports.com staff report

FOOTHILLS CHRISTIAN 66, ADELANTO 44 – Foothills Christian won not once, but twice on Thursday.

First off, the Knights defeated Adelanto behind 31 points from senior Ellie Turk.

Turk knocked down eight three-point field goals, had eight assists, six steals and a pair of blocks.

“Ellie shot the ball really well and got us playing at the fast pace that we like to play,” said Foothills head coach Joey Turk. “We can definitely do a better job on the defensive end and continue to be more efficient on offense.”

Arantxa Fonseca added 15 points, nine rebounds, and four steals in the early win for Foothills Christian.

Nataly Bravo added 14 points, four assists, and three steals for FCHS.

Junior Caroline Burke had two points, six assists, and five rebounds for the Lady Knights.

“Out team is full of players who have crazy talent and haven’t even unleashed all of their potential yet,” Burke said. “They have a high basketball IQ which allows them to make big plays, especially Ellie, who always leads our team to play our best. And Arantxa makes so many big moment plays that keep our momentum going.”

FOOTHILLS CHRISTIAN 77, CRAWFORD 24 – In their second game of the day, the Knights dispatched Crawford behind a quadruple-double from Turk.

Turk had 14 points, 14 rebounds, 15 assists, and 11 steals.

“I’m not quite sure if I’ve had one before today but it’s pretty cool,” Turk said. “We played very well as a team and fought hard to be able to come out with two W’s.”

Fonseca led the team with 26 points. She also had 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.

Bravo contributed 20 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

Burke finished with 11 points and six assists.

“We do a good job of trusting each other with the ball allowing it to be swung around the court and keep the pace going,” Burke said.”

Abby Bowen had two points and five boards for FCHS, while teammate Christie Sarkis had two points and two rebounds.

“We outmatched Crawford but they played hard the entire game,” Foothills Christian head coach Joey Turk said. “We played solid defense and we moved the ball really well.

The Knights have a big game against Scripps Ranch on Friday at 5:45.

CHRISTIAN 87, CALEXICO 49 – Simone James poured in a career-high 37 points to lead Christian to the win over Calexico.

“Of course it feels great to score 37 points in a game and to be honest I’m just trying to improve every game,” James said. “But I obviously can’t take all the credit. Because I couldn’t score it all by myself, especially if my teammates are setting me up successfully. Now the goal is to maintain this level of play, especially as we enter league.”

Yes! Allie & I have something special. We’ve just always been able to read each other from the beginning. When the team is clicking it takes us to another level

Allie Carreon had 16 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds for the Lady Patriots.

“I would rather have 20 assists than 20 points,” Carreon said. “It means more to me that I can set up my teammates up for success. I feel like my passing ability has always been there but this year I feel like I have been doing a better job. My teammates, especially Simone, have been doing an amazing job finishing and running the floor so it’s easy for me to get my assists.

“Simone and I have this amazing connection on the floor. I always know where she’s at and she does a great job running the floor so it makes my job easy.”

James also finished with 12 rebounds and eight steals.

Kristin Williams had 14 points for Christian.

“My main goal this year was to focus on defense so more colleges could trust me on both sides of the court,” Williams said. “My offense will come but defense wins championships as coach Vickie (Carrington) has said. We have been working on my defense a lot and hopefully, it will fully develop.”

Still, it wasn’t a perfect night for the Patriots despite the lopsided score, according to Carrington.

“We played really terrible defense,” said the coach. “We had 23 turnovers and they scored 20 points off of our turnovers, and we gave up 31 points in the second half. We are just a better team thus we pulled out the win but we played very average in comparison to our ability and given the fact we just finished the NIKE TOC and the Vegas Holiday Classics.

“I’m always proud of our girls, however, they are special. We had some solid moments where we executed a play and didn’t rush, but we capitalized off of a lot of fast breaks. It’s a little disappointing that we didn’t play Lady Patriot basketball being disciplined the full game. After our December, I want us to show up, show out and shine. I want us to be that team that’s capable of playing anyone and people are talking about.”

EL CAPITAN 66, SAN PASQUAL 52 – Mackenzie Curtis scored 39 points for El Capitan in the win over San Pasqual

Junior Emma Driskill scored 16 poins for El Capitan.

Curtis had two three-pointers and was 11-of-13 from the free throw line.

SWEETWATER 50, MONTE VISTA 25 – The Red Devils defeated the Monarchs at the Sweetwater Tournament on Thursday night.

“We could’ve won but everyone was not in the right state of mind,” said Monte Vista’s Jourdan Barber. “All of my teammates were doing their role but towards the end, we just got frustrated. I feel like we could’ve did a lot better if we had Meadow (Delino). We could’ve had more control of the ball and probably would’ve scored more points.”

Barber had six points, while teammate Sami Gonzalez knocked down a three-pointer in the third quarter and ended up finishing with eight points.

Jaelynn Bocala had a three-pointer in the second quarter for Monte Vista, but it was the only points of the period for the Monarchs, who trailed 28-8 at halftime.

GROSSMONT 59, CLAIREMONT 17 – Grossmont won at the Hillers New Year’s Tip-Off but no scoring information was reported.

GROSSMONT 50, CABRILLO 33 – Grossmont defeated the team from Lompoc at the Hillers New Year’s Tip-Off

Grossmont improved to 8-5 overall.

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