Trailing the Saratoga Falcons (9-5, 1-4, SCVAL-De Anza) by only one point going into the second half, the Gunn Titans (9-2, 3-0) made up for the slow start to pull out a 56-45 win.
Junior Zoe Zwerling led the Titans with 15 points, while Saratoga’s senior Hannah Johnson scored 17 points.
The game was close from the start. In the first half for Gunn, Zwerling produced seven points, senior Claire Klausner followed up with six, sophomore Olivia Tapia scored five and senior Sarah Klem made two. Sophomore Meghan Mahoney was 2-for-2 on free throws, while senior Emily Redfield and junior Sarah Longyear were 1-for-2 from the line.
During the first and second quarters, Saratoga’s junior Dharini Ramaswamy and senior Kimberly Chou each scored five points, junior Puck DeRoos had 4, while junior Tivoli Sisco nailed a three-pointer and Johnson scored two points. For free throws, Chou went 2-for-2, DeRoos 1-for-1, and Johnson 3-for-3. Their combined efforts allowed them to keep a steady lead over the Titans during most of the first half. They led 16-14 going into the second quarter.
Attempting to snatch a lead over Saratoga before the end of the half, Gunn guard senior Nora Shevick lobbed the ball from Falcon territory with just a few seconds left to fast-running Klausner on the other side of the court. With a few Falcon players defending her, Klausner was not able to make the layup at the sound of the buzzer. Going into halftime, the Falcons led 25-24.
Gunn coach Sarah Stapp thought her team lacked energy in the first half and used her halftime chat to motivate the girls.
“I told them you’re not going to get this game back, so no matter how you feel right now, you have to come out and you have to play,” she said. “We needed more defensive energy, and we got that at the start of the second half for sure.”
Stapp’s words of wisdom seemed to have casted a magical spell on the Titans’ defense, which allowed only Ramaswamy to score two points in the third. DeRoos converted one free throw seven minutes later, which meant Saratoga only scored three points in the third quarter. Zwerling dominated with six points, while Shevick nailed a three-pointer. Klem and Redfield each scored two points, and the Titans pulled away, leading 37-28 going into the fourth.
Saratoga’s Johnson shined in the last eight minutes: she shot four times to get eight points and made 4-of-4 free throws for 12 points.
But it wasn’t enough. Seven fouls by Saratoga in the final quarter gave the Titans multiple free throw opportunities, in which Zwerling made 2-for-2, Klausner 4-for-4, Mahoney 1-for-1 and Klem 1-for-1. Four additional points from Klem and Mahoney each, along with a three-pointer by Klausner with 2:42 left, sealed the victory for the Titans.
Saratoga coach Mike Davey thinks his team played well, but the girls are just a hair below the top teams in the league.
“We can play well against them for 16 or 24 minutes, and we just seem to fade down the stretch,” he said. “We’ve got to give [Gunn] credit for coming out and playing well the second half. Our girls reacted pretty well, and it took me a little longer in the second half to react to what they were doing.”
Despite the victory, Stapp sees room for improvement.
“We have to do a better job on defense on our rotations, and offensively, we have to get more out of our offensive possessions,” she said. “We also have a lot of kids who are sick right now, so the team will work on getting healthy.”
Davey thinks Saratoga has to be able to make open shots, and the girls turned the ball over too much in the third quarter.
“Part of it may be we were a little tired, so we’re going to run more in practice,” he said. “We’re also not one of the better shooting teams in the league, so we’re going to shoot a lot in practice between now and CCS and try to get better at it.”
Both teams will play away from home in their upcoming games. Saratoga faces the Los Gatos Wildcats on Jan. 30 at 7 p.m., while Gunn looks to maintain its unbeaten league record against the Lynbrook Vikings on Jan. 18 at 6:15 p.m.
