LOS ALTOS HILLS –– Despite a slow start from outside the arc, combined with the challenge of a strong presence under the basket from Woodside Priory, Pinewood walked away with a 74-40 win at home on Tuesday night, continuing their undefeated streak in the West Bay Athletic League.
“We talked a lot about being mentally tough and being able to flush the game, to play with confidence, to play with belief,” Pinewood head coach Doc Scheppler said about the rapid change in pace between the first and second half.
After an action-packed third quarter dominated by Pinewood senior Klara Astrom, Priory trailed behind Pinewood 57-32 as the final minutes started, allowing Pinewood to slowly pull back on their defense as fatigued Priory struggled to keep up on either side of the court. Pinewood sophomore Annika Decker kept the intensity up on offense, whipping the ball across the court to create open shots and drive opportunities for her teammates as Pinewood slowly edged their lead up throughout the last eight minutes.
Astrom was the top scorer in that quarter as well, capping off her game high of thirty-eight points with her last ten, including a pair of threes, before retiring to the bench. With just eight points that quarter, Priory could not get back on track after such a devastating start to the second half, and the Panthers finished with a 74-40 win.
“[Pinewood] is probably the best shooting team, not in [Northern California], but in the state, so we’re not going to match shot-for-shot with them. It’s just impossible,” Priory head coach Buck Matthews said.
Pinewood immediately grabbed the first possession and secured a quick basket with a three from Yale-committed Astrom before pulling back into a tight man-to-man defense as Priory struggled to shoot outside. Priory senior Ila Lane dominated the post, standing several inches taller than any other player on the court but only dropping in two baskets that quarter under tight defense from Astrom. Junior Annabelle North was a key outside shooter for Priory, contributing five points including one basket from behind the arc that quarter as Priory struggled to keep up with Pinewood from outside.
As Priory stuck to a zone defense, Pinewood relied on outside shooting and Decker’s quick ball movement, which helped create open shots for her team as Priory upped the intensity on defense. With two three-pointers each from Astrom and Stanford bound Hannah Jump, Pinewood was able to secure a 19-14 lead over Priory as the first eight minutes ran out.
“Playing a zone against us opens up so many opportunities for catch-and-shoot threes,” Astrom said. “We haven’t played against a zone much this year, so at first everyone was rushing around, but then we realized that it was the best thing ever because [Priory] can’t guard all five people at once.”
As the second quarter started, Pinewood tightened their defense and slowed down their offense, turning fast breaks into controlled plays as they tried different shooting combinations from outside. Pinewood was able to increase their slight lead over Priory and even kept them from scoring for the first three minutes of the quarter, until senior Anna Barton slipped past Pinewood’s defense and scored a quick layup. Lane continued to be a key rebounder for Priory and challenged both Astrom and Jump in the post as they alternated with defending her, but was ultimately unable to rack up more points as Priory continued to lag behind offensively.
“Guarding [Lane] is always a challenge,” Astrom said. “Having [Jump] there to back me up is great because I tend to get into foul trouble and can’t guard her myself, but the guards were crashing down on her and were able to make her kick the ball out. It was definitely a team effort.”
Jump dominated the three-point line, dropping four from behind the arc that quarter as Pinewood continued to rely on fast ball movement. Decker was essential in keeping up the intensity for Pinewood despite not scoring for those eight minutes, but touched the ball during almost every play as she inserted herself into Priory’s offense, securing several steals for Pinewood. This combined effort from Jump and Decker allowed Pinewood to creep up to a 34-19 lead by halftime.
“I think where we fell was defensive rebounding,” Matthews said. “Our hardest play to guard was when an offensive rebound kicked out for a three, and [Jump] did a good job of knocking them down.”
Pinewood came out as a completely different team in the second half as their speed seemed to almost double as compared to the first. Astrom dominated that quarter with seventeen points including four three pointers as she aggressively drove past Priory’s defense during fast breaks and waited patiently for the perfect shot opportunity when behind the arc. Jump also put up a pair of threes, finishing with twenty-four points made up solely of eight three-pointers, while Astrom finished with a game high of thirty-eight point including eight threes of her own.
“The way [Decker] was able to realize her full potential in the third quarter and open a lot of shots for [Jump] and I gave me a lot of confidence, and that carried me through the quarter,” Astrom said.
Priory sophomore Aniyak Augmon made her debut on the scoreboard that quarter, scoring eight of her team high of eleven points as she managed to creep past Pinewood’s defense in fast-paced offenses, but her work in the post was not enough to keep up with Astrom’s unstoppable string of baskets, and Pinewood entered the final quarter with a 25-point advantage.
“We have a size advantage, but we’re not as quick as them,” Matthews said. “We didn’t do a good job of getting Lane the ball more because she had one-on-one coverage. Whenever we got [the ball] inside, there were four girls on her, and she commands so much attention that we just couldn’t finish.”
Pinewood travels to Menlo School on Friday, while Priory plays Notre Dame San Jose that night.
