RICHMOND, Calif. – It’s been a busy week for the Salesian girls basketball team. The Pride rattled off consecutive victories on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the last of those giving head coach Steve Pezzola his 300th career victory. On Thursday, Salesian (9-0) continued its unbeaten streak to start this shortened season by beating visiting Vanden 73-43. It was the first loss on the year for the Vikings (7-1), who until this juncture had only faced league competition.
“I’ve not scored any points, it’s the girls that do it,” Pezzola said. “We really stress defense, being good teammates and passing the ball. I’m proud of the girls how they stepped up.”
Silivia Fonongaloa, back in the lineup after a temporary absence, looked pumped up to return. The 6-1 junior tallied 18 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks, at times verbalizing her joy in front of an increasingly enthusiastic bench.
The Pride received steady performances up and down the lineup. Makiah Asidanya added 13 points, and Ally Alvarado nine. In all 11 Salesian players entered the scoring column. While Fonongaloa and Alvarado are at the heart of the team’s offense, an additional nine players are averaging more than four points per game on the season.
Salesian, like Vanden, had an unusual number of traveling calls, and also put the Vikings into the double bonus in the second quarter. But the Pride led wire-to-wire, closing the first quarter on a 9-0 run and taking a 30-19 advantage into halftime. Salesian started the third on a 13-2 run and after that got more and more celebratory as the minutes ticked away.
“We’re very young, and that’s not an excuse for everything,” Vanden coach Allison Johnson said. “There’s a lot of moments where your bad habits are exposed. They can’t un-see what they just experienced.”
Vanden came in having dominated the Empire Monticello League in the Sac-Joaquin Section. The Vikings had walloped their opponents by an average score of 82.4 to 28.9. Even though this squad only had games against mediocre competition, however, there was reason to believe this outing should have been closer. In 2019-2020 the Vikings defeated Carondelet by 23 and fared well against Saint Mary’s in the CIF State Division III Regional Quarterfinals, losing by nine to the eventual NorCal champs.
“It’s been over 400 days since we’ve had normalcy,” Allison Johnson, who runs the team with husband Jake Johnson III, said. “I knew that Salesian would put themselves in position to execute those painful points, and I can’t simulate that in practice.”
Johnson added that the condensed schedule, cancellations, and a death in the student community at Vanden have all posed challenges to this season’s team.
Alyssa Jackson led Vanden with 20 points, nine rebounds, three blocks, three steals, and two assists. But the rest of the team struggled, with not one having more than five points or excelling in any other category. But Johnson is hopeful that despite Thursday’s result, the experience against a team of Salesian’s stature will help the relatively young team - it has no seniors - as it makes the transition from the COVID year to next season, whenever it starts.
“We’re going to focus on what we can control,” Johnson concluded. “In the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of mourning the loss of one of the juniors at our school, in the grand scheme of things this is a drop in the bucket.”
For Pezzola, who took the helm in the fall of 2009, the year has started much like any other. His career at Salesian is decorated by State Championship appearances, NCS titles, and league pennants, and he’s coached multiple players, like Mariya and Minion Moore, who have gone on to play Division I ball. He graduated from Salesian himself before going on to get a B.S. and a law degree at the University of California at Berkeley.
Last season the Pride made it to the NCS Open Division semifinals and the CIF State Division I regional final. The assistant coaches, the current JV coach - whom he coached in AAU - and the Salesian community have always helped things run smoothly.
“We divide up responsibilities,” Pezzola remarked. “We’re really blessed with the coaching staff. Continuity’s important. We tweak our system every year based on the talent we have. I’m happy, the girls follow instructions pretty well and usually give everything they got.”
