Dons end Cougars' run

The Half Moon Bay girls' basketball team was the Cinderella squad crashing the semifinal party of the Peninsula Athletic League tournament. The Cougars, the No. 10 seed, were enjoying a four-game winning streak, beating Hillsdale in the first round of the tournament before avenging two losses to Westmoor during the regular season with a 57-47 win Tuesday. Thursday, they recorded their biggest win of the season, knocking off No. 2 seed Mills, 45-34. Unfortunately for the Cougars, the clock struck midnight Friday when No. 3 seed Aragon bounced Half Moon Bay out of tournament, 52-46. "It's hard to keep the emotions up," said Half Moon Bay coach John Carey. "I think we were a little gassed (Friday)." Aragon, the No. 3 seed, will get a rematch with Bay Division and reigning PAL tournament champion Terra Nova in Saturday's championship game at 6 p.m. at El Camino High. The Tigers nipped the Dons at the buzzer on the last day of the regular season Feb. 12 to clinch the division title. "I'm glad we came out with a win," said Aragon coach Annette Gennaro-Trimble after beating the Cougars at El Camino Friday. "Half Moon Bay played a very good game." The final score is a bit deceiving, however. Aragon enjoyed a comfortable lead for most of the game. Up 50-37 with 3:06 to play, Half Moon Bay finished on a 10-2 run. But it was too little, too late. "We let them take us out of what we wanted to do," Carey said. The Dons essentially used a box-and-1 defense, in which one defender was matched up man-to-man with Cougars point guard Diana Cariaga while the rest played in a zone defense. The Dons made it known early that they would allow anyone but Cariaga to beat them. "I heard she was the playmaker of the team ... A very good player," Gennaro-Trimble said. The plan worked as Cariaga was limited to just eight points, including just one field goal. She had a difficult time even getting the ball in her hands and when she did, the Dons' defenders harassed her until she gave it up. "They really neutralized her," Carey said. "We couldn't get into our sets and we got really sloppy with the ball." Said Gennaro-Trimble: "Guarding [Cariaga] took Half Moon Bay out of their game and helped us offensively." The Dons forced 11 Cougar turnovers and also came away with 17 steals which led to easy points in transition. When Aragon did set up in a half-court offense, the Cougars had a difficult time controlling Aragon post Artevia Lilomaiva, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. When Aragon wasn't dominating in the post, it was the Dons' guards doing damage from the perimeter. Shelby Barthold scored a team-high 19 points, with 13 coming in the first half. Emi Hashizume added 13. They each buried three 3-pointers. Half Moon Bay was led by sophomore post Miranda Reimche, who scored 19, but had her hands full on defense trying to guard Lilomaiva. The first quarter was relatively close, as Half Moon Bay went up 5-2 early on a bucket from Lena King and a long 3-pointer from Lauren Ward. Aragon responded with back-to-back baskets from Barthold on a putback and a Tara Baldini score for a 6-5 lead. The Dons eventually pushed their advantage to 13-9 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Dons found their groove as they connected on 7 of 12 field goal attempts. More damaging was the fact that four of those seven were 3-pointers. They threatened to run away with the game as they started the quarter on an 11-0 run to build a 21-9 lead with 5:16 left in the first half. Half Moon Bay cut it to nine with a 6-0 run of its own but went into halftime trailing by 13, 33-20. The Cougars had their chances in the second half, but could never find a rhythm. They were aided by the fact that both Baldini and Lilomaiva were in foul trouble for most of the third and fourth quarters. That will have to change that if the Dons are to beat Terra Nova. "They have to learn not to (pick up silly fouls)," Gennaro-Trimble said. "They have to learn how to adjust to how the officials are calling it." Terra Nova 64, Menlo-Atherton 56 The shot clock for a girls' basketball game is 30 seconds. It almost wasn't needed as these two teams didn't see a shot they didn't like. In the end, however, the top-seeded Tigers pulled away in the fourth quarter to move into their second-straight PAL tournament championship game. The fourth-seeded Bears were beaten by the Tigers twice during the regular season, including a 12-point win Feb. 9, but when Alexandria Flowers made one of two free throw with 6:50 remaining in the game, M-A was down just two, 47-45. That's when the Tigers took over, especially guard Terilyn Moe. She scored seven points during a 11-4 run that saw Terra Nova push its lead to 58-49 with 3:08 to play. It was a microcosm of Moe's day as she finished with a game-high 30 points, 19 of which came in the first half. Moe's performance offset a monster game from M-A's Victoria Fakalata, who was nearly unstoppable in the post. The senior scored a team-high 26 points -- 16 in the first half -- and pulled down seven rebounds. Moe also had seven rebounds. With those two essentially playing each other to a standstill, the outcome was decided by their supporting casts, and Terra Nova's is better than M-A's. Ivyonne Cook Taylor came up with 18 points for the Tigers, using a variety of dribble penetration and pull-up jumpers. Fakalata was supported by 12 points from point guard Jessica Tuliau and 10 from Flowers. Credit goes to the Bears, however, for not giving up. Every time it appeared the Tigers were ready to pull away, the Bears reeled them back in. M-A trailed 33-32 at halftime, but fell behind by six in the third quarter. A 3-pointer from Flowers and a three-point play by Fakalata tied the score at 40. Terra Nova responded with a 5-0 run of its own and led by three going into the fourth quarter where the Tigers finally put the Bears away.