Lathrop remains undefeated through 11 games, and the Spartans are doing it with defense.
On Wednesday, they continued their best start in program history with a comfortable 50-34 triumph over visiting Sierra.
“It’s everything,” Lathrop coach Dwayne Davis said of his team’s emphasis on defense. “We’re not just looking to keep them to single digits in every quarter, we want to try to hold them to no more than five. We can win a game 1-0. We just don’t want to get into a 101-100 game.”
The Timberwolves (5-4) would have been held to single-digit scoring in the first half, if not for Isabellah Crabb’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Lathrop led 20-11 at halftime and by as much as 20, 37-17 late in the third quarter.
“I thought we prepared well,” Sierra coach Rudy Valencia said. “I tip my hat to Lathrop; they’re really athletic and well coached, but I feel like our girls right now are kind of stuck between the ears where it’s more of a head game or us.
“Sometimes you get into that slump, and you can’t get back out it. You hope to get on a little run, and we had our little spikes here and there, but we just couldn’t get close enough to make it a game, unfortunately.”
Crabb led all scorers with 19 points, including four 3, while adding nine rebounds and three steals.
Crabb had to carry the load just to keep her team in it with Sierra’s top player, Emalina Latu, getting into early foul trouble. Latu was scoreless in the first half and fouled out with 2:04 left in the game, finishing with two points, four rebounds and three assists. Fellow second-year sophomore Tessa Zalunardo (five points) picked up her fifth foul 26 seconds later.
“She does so much on both sides of the court,” Sierra coach Rudy Valencia said. “She’s a great rebounder, great defender and we love to run our offense through her. When she got into foul trouble, that’s definitely big.”
Fourth-year senior forward Shakara Porter paced Lathrop (11-0) with 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Breanna Wiseman contributed 10 points, six boards and two blocks, while point guard Ja’Leiyah Ray racked up eight points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
The Spartans got a spark from Zakia Booker, a member of the program’s talented freshman class. She was elevated from the JV team earlier in the week and made her varsity debut Wednesday, hitting three 3s in the third quarter and finishing with 11 points, four rebounds and two steals off the bench.
“I kept having to yell at her (to shoot), because she wasn’t shooting the ball in the first half,” Davis said. “I told her to shoot the ball — that’s why we brought you up.
“Now, she’s getting caught up to the scheme and everything that we do, because she got thrown in on the fly. She was told one day ago she was going to practice with us, and it was basically a walkthrough. She also helps on defense, because she’s long. She gets her hands into the passing lanes and gets a lot of deflections.”
Sierra showed some life in the fourth quarter when senior guard Danica Cesante scored five straight points for the Timberwolves. Her layup closed the T’wolves in 43-30 with 3:52 to go, but Lathrop responded with five unanswered points — capped by a nifty drive and spin into the lane by Porter — to put it back out of reach.
“We weren’t expecting a blowout,” Davis said. “I told them we’re in the enviable position now to where we’re being hunted. When we’re playing teams here in the area, you know they’re going to want to be the first one to beat us. We expect everyone to battle us from here and out, but that’s what we want.”
Lathrop will head down to San Diego over winter break for the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic. The Spartans open the NAIA Gold bracket with Culver City on Saturday, Dec. 27.
Sierra starts the Livingston Leader of the Pack Tournament today against Merced.
Junior varsity
Lathrop 42, Sierra 13
The Spartans had players pick up the slack for leading scorer Zoha Ali, who battled foul trouble all game.
Ryleigh Race led the balanced scoring effort with nine points. Hazel Beltran ended with eight, and Faith Allen had seven.
