Monache makes EYL sweep of Porterville

An all around team effort displayed by the Monache girls’ basketball squad (20-3, 12-0 EYL) allowed it to finish its EYL campaign unbeaten, a perfect 12-0, after blowing out perennial rivals Porterville (13-6 ,9-3 EYL), 57-30, Thursday night.

“It feels great; obviously at the beginning of the season we lost our best player, Beth Reed, who we inducted into the Hall of Fame [prior to the game]. Even after her injury, we knew we had a chance to go 12-0,” Monache coach Rudy Montanez said. “Being as young as we are with mainly freshman, sophomores, and juniors and being able to accomplish the goal of going undefeated is huge for these young girls. We’re really excited about our future.”

The Marauders have secured their second EYL title in the past three seasons, placing last season one game behind the Panthers. Porterville placed second in the EYL in both the 07-08 season and this year.

“Brian runs a very good program at Porterville and it always seems like it’s the two of us fighting it out [for the EYL champiosnip],” Montanez said. “My hat’s off to him and his program; he did a great thing with his team this year.”

Monache’s sophomore point guard and the EYL’s leading scorer, Jenae Alcantar, led the way tonight for the Marauders as she scored 13 points, falling shy of her 17.7 points per game average. Chelsea Duldulao was just behind with 11 points. Dominique Pilkington finished the game with 10 points and Alley Tobie added eight of her own.

“Everybody stepped up; Dominique, as a sophomore, had to take over running the team offensively and defensively,” Montanez said. “Jenae showed tonight why she is easily the best player in the EYL. She’s the leading scorer in the league and the leader in steals.”

The Panthers were led in scoring by seniors Kyla Hill, who scored 11, and Cori Ann Snyder, who added 11 points before fouling out.

The game was riddled with fouls from the Marauders, who racked up 10 fouls early in the first half, and then by the Panthers, who were in foul trouble nearly the entire second half.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Monache, because they played a great game, but I think the officials kind of took us out of the game. Our girls were afraid to do anything after awhile,” Porterville coach Brian Hill said. “Monache pressed the entire game, and we had three girls foul out but I’m not taking anything away from Monache. They scored more points and deserved to win.”

The Marauders kicked off the game by taking an 8-0 lead after Alcantar scored the first four and Diana Corona scored the next four in the paint. The Panthers finally got on the board after Snyder sank one of her first two free throws, but Snyder had trouble at the line as she sank just five of 16 attempts.

“We didn’t shoot our free throws well tonight, either. It’s been our team’s Achilles heel all season long,” Hill said.

The Panthers began to keep pace with the Marauders in the second quarter and Monache’s lead was cut to a single point after Hill’s trey with 3:06 left got them within 13-12. Alcantar answered Hill’s shot just 25 seconds later as she hit the mark from beyond the arc. Monache then went on a seven-point run to extend its lead to 23-12.

“I think our girls did an awesome job. We had a few too many mistakes in the first half, but they corrected them in the second half and they were able to pull away,” Montanez said.

The Marauders exploded in a third quarter in which they outscored the Panthers 21-7 to open up a 23-point lead, 44-21.

“We knew that in our first game against them we didn’t play very well. We let Coriann have her way with us. This game we were determined not to do so,” Montanez said.

The fouls continued to pour on for both teams in the fourth quarter, resulting in 16 trips to the line. Porterville hit just half of its 10 free throws and Monache fared no better at 9-of-22.

Both teams will head into the playoffs in their respective divisions and they are waiting to hear how they will be seeded.

“We’re Division III, so we’re hoping to get a fourth, fifth or sixth seed and work from there. We finished second in our league and we’ll just have to see what happens,” Hill said.