KENTFIELD, Calif. – As is the case in most home-and-away series, the home team usually has an advantage, even at this stage of pandemic-era in high school sports with limited fans in the stands. So it’s no surprise visiting Carondelet had its hands full against a young and scrappy Marin Catholic squad.
It was actually a battle of two young teams as Carondelet first-year head coach Kelly Sopak starts five underclass girls on a team that was ranked No. 23 in the latest Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.
In the end the host Wildcats girls gave the Cougars all they could handle. However, after overcoming a 10-point third-quarter deficit, and a back-and-forth fourth quarter that saw two ties and three lead changes, Carondelet escaped with a 47-44 victory Wednesday night.
The outcome was still up in the air when Marin Catholic took its final lead, scoring with 1:44 remaining to go up, 42-41. But behind the late-game efforts of junior Nya Epps with help from fellow junior Anela Wannomea, Carondelet prevailed. The win gave Carondelet a sweep of the two games after they won 54-39 in a season opener in Concord.
Epps, a 5-10 wing, not only led the second-half defensive pressure, but she took over down the stretch and scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the second half. She also finished with nine rebounds, four assists and four steals.
With Carondelet trailing 42-41 she determinedly went to the rack to score and give Carondelet the lead for good at 43-42 with 1:35 left. On the next sequence, she came up with a steal that led to two free throws by Wannomea to get it to 45-42 with 1:05 left.
After a basket by Marin Catholic junior Anna Schraeder to cut the lead to a single point, Wannomea (8 points) was given the ball on an isolation play and she hit the game's most important shot for the final tally of the contest. After a missed free throw by Epps, Marin Catholic had a final desperation shot by Gracyn Lovette at the buzzer to tie the game, but the three-quarter court shot fell way short.
Carondelet remained unbeaten at 6-0, but it took a complete turnaround in a game they led 6-5 early on, but didn’t retake the lead again until late in the fourth quarter on the bucket by Epps.
“Marin Catholic is a very good team with some talented players, and the fact they are so well coached and disciplined makes them a tough out,” Sopak said.
The game was tied 14-14 after one quarter and Marin Catholic led 29-23 at the half, but after getting to their 10-point lead the Wildcats started to succumb to the relentless Carondelet defense and by the end of the third quarter the lead was down to 37-33 and the momentum was swinging. Even so, Marin Catholic fought hard all the way to the end.
Carondelet also got a solid double-double 12 points and 15 rebounds from junior forward Megan Dickert. Her rebounding and scoring in the first half kept the Marin Catholic lead from being bigger.
“I thought the first time around we overwhelmed them with our pressure and put them on their heels,” Sopak remarked. “Tonight I felt their energy dictated the tempo, especially early on.”
Budding sophomore standout Lovette was the epitome of the energy Sopak refers to. Matched up against Epps she more than held her own for three quarters, and although Epps held her scoreless in the final period she played hard right up to the final buzzer. Lovette finished with a double-double 12 points and 10 rebounds with three assists and two steals. Schraeder also had 12 points and eight rebounds with six of her points coming in the fourth quarter.
“We could have said we can’t play with Carondelet after losing by 15 a couple of weeks ago, but as a unit we learned from that game,” said Marin Catholic head coach Ashley Saia, a 2006 Marin Catholic graduate who was a standout guard for the Wildcats.
“We executed much better against their press, Grayson played awesome, and a lot of kids knocked down open shots,” continued Saia. “We’ll learn even more from this game. Playing teams like Carondelet and St. Ignatius is just going to make us better.”
Marin Catholic (5-4) took a second straight loss on Thursday night, 57-45 on the road in San Francisco at St. Ignatius, but like Saia said, the experience of playing state-ranked level teams will pay off for a young Wildcats team that only has two senior non starters on the roster.
For a young Carondelet team the message was similar but a bit different for a Cougars team with four seniors on its 15-girl roster but none are starters.
“We’re a young group so this was a wake-up call on how difficult it can be to play on the road if you don’t bring that high level of energy and intensity,” Sopak said
Carondelet will next be in action Friday night at home against Monte Vista of Danville.
