Carion has Jefferson girls’ basketball team off to fast start

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Grizzlies were swarming double teams to the perimeter from the opening tipoff. Aggressiveness has long been a staple of Carion’s teams, first at Oceana and then as a perennial Central Coast Section playoff contender at South City. And it’s this aggression that has fueled Jefferson’s 4-1 start, despite missing two starters due to injury.

“I’m just trying to continue what my daughter, Coach Marisa, started,” said Carion, who took over the program prior to the season when his daughter Marisa Igafo stepped down as head coach. “We’re a good defensive team. We’re trying to take it to the next level. We’re playing well, we’re playing aggressive. But we’re not playing as smart as we need to be. I think once we start playing smarter, we’ll be a lot better team.”

Once Jefferson’s injured center Charlotte Poialii joins the team, it will help balance the post. The Grizzlies already have one talented post player in four-year varsity senior BrookLynn Daniels, who fronted the team Tuesday with nine points and 18 rebounds.

During the offseason, Daniels wasn’t sure she would be ready by the start of the season either. In the final game of the 2020-21 spring season, she suffered an ankle injury that she initially thought was a sprain. Eventually, she was diagnosed with a fracture, costing her the chance to play offseason club basketball with her Jefferson teammates Cathy Felix and Lhanna Padua.

“I definitely think once we get all our players back, it’s going to be a bigger impact than we have now,” Daniels said. “Because us four together is definitely a different story.”

As it is, at 4-1, Jefferson is off to its best start in modern history dating back to at least 2004.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t think that, especially me just coming back from an injury, I didn’t think I was going to play as much as I do,” Daniels said.

The Grizzlies’ fast start against Waldorf speaks volumes. Jumping out to a 21-6 lead, Jefferson shot 58.8% (10 of 17) from the field in the first quarter.

Senior forward Jazelyn Alfonso scored two early layups en route to her team-high 16 points. The offense finished the opening period with a flourish, with sophomore Jerzey Gallegos knocking down a 3 with 45 seconds remaining, before a Waldorf turnover set up an Alfonso layup off an assist pass from Daniels.

“I think we need to play fast and we’re just not ready yet, especially with the numbers,” Carion said. “With our point guard and our center out, we’re still trying to make adjustments.”

The Grizzlies cooled off after the opening period. Holding your opposition to 4-of-29 shooting from the field in the first half allows a team to do that. Jefferson still outscored Waldorf 11-3 in the second quarter.

But Waldorf won the third period 15-10, much in part to sophomore Aasia Williams finding her stroke from the field. Williams scored a game-high 21 points and added eight rebounds.

Jefferson finished the game with a head of steam though, just as quickly as they opened, with Gallegos scoring a running jumper to push her total to 11 points with a minute to play; Jeff getting the ball right back for Alfonso to score off an assist from freshman Grace Wang; and Taulelei Matavao coming up with a steal to score on a breakaway in the closing seconds.

Matavao also finished with 11 points.

“There definitely is talent,” Carion said. “There’s a huge adjustment — them adjusting to me, me adjusting to them. I still don’t feel like I’m able to put them to use their talent to the best that they can. I’m struggling with that. We’re trying to find ways, we’re trying to get better. There was some moments out there where you could see we’re trying to get better. We’re going for a lot of home runs instead of going for singles. They’re not trying to get there one pass at a time.”