PETALUMA - For the first time since Jan. 23, 2010, Petaluma’s T-Girls knocked off their cross town rivals Casa Grande 45-38 in a game played in a loud Ed Iacopi Gymnasium.
“The girls knew it had been a long time since Petaluma had beaten Casa Grande, but I told them, ‘I wasn’t coaching here, and you weren’t playing here, so just go and play basketball.’ It seemed to work,” said Petaluma head coach Jon Ratshin.
There was a very nice moment before the game. Petaluma sophomore Taylor Iacopi, the granddaughter of the aforementioned Ed Iacopi, led her team across the court to the sign bearing his name, making a nice gesture to the sign honoring her grandfather.
Petaluma outscored Casa Grande 16-4 in the third quarter, taking an 11-point lead which proved to much to overcome for Casa Grande (14-9, 8-2).
“We had talked about how bad third quarters have been for us, and how good they’ve been for Casa, so we had to limit that,” Ratshin commented.
Sheriene Arikat converted her signature spin in the lane for a lay up, but momentum swung when Petaluma hit three straight three’s, two in a row by Kassidy Bacon, including a nice move to get open and banking it in off the glass that put the Petaluma crowd into a frenzy. Iacopi hit another three. Bella Weinberg finished off the run getting to the line and hitting a pair of from the charity stripe and Petaluma jumped out to a 37-26 lead over a stunned Casa Grande squad.
“Our girls wanted to win tonight, with this their last game against Casa Grande, they really wanted this one.” said Ratshin.
Kaileigh Pate opened the scoring with her only points of the game, but it was a three. The two teams battled back and forth. Trinity Merwin was able to get inside for four easy points in the lane. Petaluma relied on the three ball to get through a Gaucho zone, with Arikat hitting a three, but Samanthra Dedrickson crashed the offensive boards and Casa got on a little bit of a run going up 14-8. Petaluma finished the quarter out strong with a three just before the buzzer from Lilah Bacon to make it 14-11 Casa Grande after one quarter.
The two teams stayed toe for toe throughout the second quarter. Dedrickson and Rose Nevin battled on the boards all night, but Nevin got the better of the battle in that period, grabbing a pair of rebounds and scoring four points.
“Rose (Nevin) was unbelievable on the boards tonight. She goes and gets that ball, she wants it,” Ratshin said.
Merwin kept her good game going, stepping back beyond the arc for a big three, and then driving the lane around Petaluma defenders, making it look easy. Petaluma was able to get to the line with Nevin, Iacopi and Weinberg to slow the pace of the game down, but only hit three of six attempts in the quarter. Cameron Ayers got those points back with a three as Petaluma cut the Casa lead to 22-21 at the intermission.
Petaluma (11-13, 3-7) went three and a half minutes without scoring, as Casa Grande chipped away at the lead. Casa kept getting to the line in a very energized and physical game. Merwin went six of six from the line, cutting it to 37-33 Petaluma. Petaluma got another great move from Arikat, then she hit a pair of free throws to put them up 41-35. A big three from Emma Reese cut the Trojan lead to 41-38, but Arikat was able to get back to the line for another two points. With 17.8 seconds to go, Petaluma got the ball back and on a beautiful sideline play, fittingly, Iacopi closed the scoring with an easy lay up to push the lead to seven and all but seal the deal.
Petaluma will host Napa on Thursday night.
Casa Grande will go to Justin Siena on Thursday night, as they drop out of their tie for first place.
