SACRAMENTO — In the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III girls championship game Saturday between top-seeded Placer and No. 3 East Union, the Lancers led by two points with 2:16 left in the third period when Shebra Rezaye capped an 8-0 East Union run with a field goal.
The clock struck midnight for the Lancers, and the Hillmen embarked on a 15-0 run that lasted well into the final period on the way to a 58-43 win for Placer at Golden 1 Center.
It was the first section final-round appearance for both teams since the 1990s.
“We didn’t come here to be happy and give a good showing,” East Union coach Jim Agostini said. “We came here to win a basketball game, and I thought our girls competed hard. We didn’t play great at times. It wasn’t one of our best games, but you have to give credit to Placer on that.”
The Lancers forced 21 turnovers.
“We wanted to come here and let it rip,” Agostini said. “The last thing we wanted to do was come here and play passive. We were trapping and pressing and trying to get some turnovers, but then we stopped scoring.”
Rezaye’s third-quarter bucket to make the score 33-31 marked the game’s sixth lead change against four ties.
“It was a good game,” Rezaye said. “We came out strong and we had energy, but toward the end, we kind of let go and they took advantage of that and we fell short.”
Rezaye (seven rebounds, six steals) and Zyondupree Beasley (four rebounds, three steals, two blocks, assist) paced East Union (26-6) with 12 points apiece.
“We knew we could play with them,” Beasley said. “We knew we could have possibly even beat this team.
“Our short shots weren’t falling, and we were still right there with them. I don’t want to go on about what-ifs, but it was a good game. We were playing the best we could with the conditions as they were.”
The Lancers’ Ava Barrera (five points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals, block) was the only player on either team to play the full 32 minutes and she was awarded the SJS sportsmanship award.
“We put in the work and we tried really hard,” Barrera said. “It came down to defense, and we had a good run for a while, but then it slipped.”
Placer (30-2) had a tremendous size advantage, and that advantage got even bigger when Jerney Luckett, East Union’s only true post player, went down with a game-ending leg injury early in the game. At the time of her departure, Luckett already had two rebounds and a steal.
“We were already taking the floor as the undersized team,” Agostini said. “You can’t lose your only post presence you have. How much of a difference that made you don’t know, but Jerney had been playing good down the stretch, and especially in the playoffs.
“Was she a difference maker? We definitely lost something by not having her on the floor.”
The Hillmen boasted three players in double figures – Breely Shriver (17 points), Brookelyn Dunkle (15) and Ginder Biddle (14) and won the battle of the boards 33-29.
“Size helps,” Placer coach Tony Camillucci said. “We started pounding the ball down low a little bit, and our bigs came through at the end.
“We fouled a lot in that first quarter, so they had most of their points on the free-throw line, so we cleaned that up a little bit. Brookelyn got in foul trouble, so she had to sit most of the first half and got to play the whole second half, so that made a difference.”
It’s the third section champion for Placer, which won its previous two in 1989 and 1990.
The season continues for both teams with the California Interscholastic Federation Northern Regional Championships starting on Tuesday. Brackets will be released on Sunday.
