Fourth-seeded Ripon Christian stumbled out of the gate Thursday night against No. 5 Bret Harte and rallied back, but then saw its star Maddie Yonker foul out to start the fourth quarter.
The visiting Bullfrogs from Angels Camp smelled blood in the wate,r but it did them no good as the Knights increased their lead after Yonker fouled out and won the Sac-Joaquin Section girls quarterfinal contest, 46-31.
“I think the girls thought they were going to play the same Bret Harte team as last year,” Ripon Christian coach Mike Vander Molen said. “We definitely came out with a rough start, and if you would have told me Maddie would foul out when she did and we would win, I wouldn’t have believed it. We played three games earlier in the year without Maddie due to a concussion and those three games paid off tonight. We got killed in two of the three, but tonight Kara (Kessler) and (Cailyn) Mouw stepped up — they all stepped up.
“Our defense played really well and we were able to rebound. When Maddie fouled out, Reagan (Van Der Hoek) went into a different gear. The look on her face was just different. It was kind of hard to imagine winning a game without Maddie, but that shows you what kind of kids we have.”
The Knights (16-11) got off to a very uncharacteristically slow start, turning the ball over on their first four trips up the court and they saw Bret Harte (13-14) close the first period on a 6-2 run for an 8-4 lead.
“I know I wasn’t in a great mental space before the game,” said Yonker, who finished with 13 points, three assists, three rebounds and four steals. “After those first few minutes, I knew I needed to clear out my head and be there for my teammates, starting from 0-0 and start a new mindset and bring energy and pick other people up, acting like we just started the game.”
In the second period, Kessler (nine points) hit her first of two 3-pointers in the quarter to put Ripon Christian ahead for good as the Knights closed out the half on a 9-2 run and never looked back.
Van Der Hoek scored six of her team’s 10 points in the final quarter and finished with a double-double at 14 points and 18 rebounds.
“Maddie is such a big asset to the team that when she fouled out we really had to get the team to focus in and keep our composure,” Van Der Hoek said. “We had to make sure we secured that lead and that we didn’t falter and let them make any last second shots.”
The Knights, who earned a berth in the NorCal playoffs with the win over the Bullfrogs travel to Grass Valley on Tuesday to face top-seeded Bear River at 7 p.m.
