Down eight points to Notre Dame-Belmont with a minute left in the third quarter, the Menlo School girls’ basketball team was nine minutes away from a disastrous start to league play.
Playing their fifth game in a week, the Knights were staring at a third straight loss in West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division play — a division that threw its weight around in the Central Coast Section playoffs last season.
But Menlo rallied in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Tigers 22-7 to pull out a 52-43 win and get its season back on track.
“I have to hand it to the girls. The first three quarters, the girls still looked heavy legged,” said Menlo coach John Paye.
But in the final eight minutes, the Knights got the spring back in their step. Down 36-30 to start the fourth, Menlo hit back-to-back 3-pointers from freshman Coco Layton and senior Mallory North, the second of which tied the game at 36 with 5:53 to play.
A jumper from NDB’s Talia Bertana slowed Menlo’s roll briefly, but North’s fourth 3 of the night with 3:07 left gave the Knights their first lead of the game, 39-38. That trey kicked off a 12-0 run. Avery Lee scored her first points of the game on a layup and an and-1.
After that, it was a steady procession of free throws that maintained Menlo’s lead. Maiea Makoni, Lee and North all made a pair of free throws to up the lead to 10, 48-38, with 1:10 to play. The Knights then made 4 of 6 from the stripe over the final minute.
After going 2 for 9 from the line in the first two quarters, Menlo (2-2 WBAL Foothill, 13-3 overall) was 11 for 13 in the fourth quarter alone.
“We had [nine] free throws in the first half,” Paye said. “I told them, ‘If we get [nine] in the second, we would win.”
It was a rough finish for a NDB squad that built as early lead and never trailed until the fourth quarter.
“We played too well to lose a game like that,” said NDB coach Josh Davenport. “The aggression completely disappeared once we went up eight and [Menlo] stepped up the pressure.”
NDB (1-2, 9-5) played well for the first three quarters and what the Tigers lacked in offense, they made up for with their defense. They held the Knights to just six points in the first quarter, on a pair of Layton 3s, and led 11-6 after one quarter.
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“I thought our defense was tremendous in the half court,” Davenport said. “But it wasn’t enough.”
Olga Faasolo came off the bench for NDB in the first quarter and made an immediate impact. The Tigers led 6-3, but when the 6-1 post player checked in, Faasolo made 1 of 2 free throws before using a spin move in the post for a bucket and followed that with a power move on the baseline for a layup and an 11-3 NDB lead with 51 seconds left in the opening quarter.
The momentum shifted in the second quarter. Faasolo assisted on a Taylor McDonald bucket to give NDB a 13-6 lead to open the second quarter, but back-to-back 3s from North and Mohini Gupta tied the score at 13 for Menlo.
The Tigers retook the lead on a steal and layup from Alexandra Gatt, who had just checked into the game and led 21-18 with 39 seconds left, but Makoni tied the game at 21 at halftime with a 3-pointer.
Menlo made only six baskets in the first two quarters — all 3-pointers.
The momentum swung back to the Tigers to start the third period as they outscored the Knights 15-9 and outrebounded them 10-1. A Bertana jumper in the key to open the second half gave the Tigers the lead again. Faasolo and Betana then scored on layups after beating the Menlo press and the Tigers were up 27-23. When Emilia Dougherty was fouled as she knocked down a 3-pointer, with the free throw being converted by Alaiyah San Juan because Dougherty calf cramped up, NDB was up six, 34-28, with 1:44 left in the third, which they Tigers pushed to eight when Jasmine Masuda scored a layup off a the dribble.
The game shifted one more time in the fourth quarter, however, and the Knights were the beneficiaries.
“They really grew as a team today,” Paye said of his squad. “That’s the operative word for us — team. … I had some frustrations. We were all frustrated. But I told the team to stay together. We maintained our composure.”
North Menlo with a game-high 16 points, while Makoni added nine points and 12 rebounds. The Tigers got 10 points and seven rebounds from Faasolo, while Bertana, Dougherty and San Juan all scored six points apiece.
For Notre Dame-Belmont, it was another case of what could have been. The Tigers got the looks at the basket they wanted, but as has been the case this season, failed to hit many of them as they shot just 14 for 49 from the field.
“If you would tell me before the game we’d get those looks, I’d take them,” Davenport said. “But you have to knock them down.”
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