Cold shooting costs the Scots

“We just didn’t handle their physicality well,” said Carlmont head coach Richard Stephens. “They were just up in our grill and we could never get in a rhythm.”

The Scots shot the ball decent enough in the first quarter as they hit on 5 of 11 shot attempts — including an Ishibashi-To nearly three-quarter court three-pointer at the buzzer — but they finished the game shooting 28% from the field and just 14% from behind the 3-point line as they hit on just 3 of 22 attempts.

3s fall or they don’t — that’s part of the game. But Carlmont also misfired on a number of shots around the basket and as the Scots tried to keep up with the Trojans, their shooting woes eventually did them in.

“That’s kind of been our problem. Putting four quarters together has been tough,” Stephens said.

Couple the Scots’ cold shooting with Milpitas finding its shooting touch in the second half and it added up to the Trojans outscoring Carlmont 28-15 over the final two quarters.

But in the first half, Carlmont was this close from pulling away from the Trojans. Milpitas led 5-4 with just over two minutes left in the first period when the Scots went on a 12-2 run that bridged the first and second quarters. Sky Yee triggered the run by nailing a 3, followed by Emily Monteforte finishing a layup on a cut down the middle and when Ishibashi-To hit her 3 at the buzzer, the Scots had spurted out to a 12-7 lead.

A Cyan Yee baseline jumper off an assist from Ishibashi-To, followed by a Monteforte layup and the the Scots were up 16-7 with 4:43 left in the first half.

But Carlmont did not score agains the rest of the half. Milpitas didn’t take complete advantage, however, and still trailed 16-10 with 2:07 left in the quarter.

But a layup from a wide open Rachel Hoang with two seconds left had the Trojans trailing just 16-12 as the closed on a 5-0 run.

“The one that really hurt was at the end of the half when we left a girl wide open under the basket,” Stephens said.

And the halftime break didn’t stop the Trojans’ momentum. After Angie Nguyen hit 1 of 2 free throws to cut Carlmont’s lead to three, 16-13, Mia Masukawa gave the Scots a little breathing room as she railed an elbow 3.

But Milpitas’ Jovalin Victorino, who finished with a game-high 12, answered right back with a triple of her own. She would go on to add a free throw and another bucket as the Trojans went on a 11-0 run, punctuated by a 3 from Nguyen, who finished with 10 points, and put Milpitas up 24-19.

All told, the Trojans outscored the Scots 17-3, bridging the second and third quarters.

But the Scots stayed in it, ending the third quarter with an Ishibashi-To basket and a free throw from Arianna Vasiliev and trailed by just two, 24-22, going into the fourth.

The Scots briefly took the lead, 25-24, when Monteforte opened the final period with a three-point play, but Milpitas really put the pressure on Carlmont when the Trojans hit back-to-back 3s from Nguyen and Brennalyn David to go up 32-28 with 4:42 left.

Carlmont got a free throw from Emerson Barajas to close to 32-29 with 4:13 left, but the Scots did not score again until an Ishibashi-To layup with 3:09 to play and then went scoreless for the rest of the game.

Ishibashi-To led the Scots with 10 points.

Milpitas, meanwhile, closed on a 8-2 run over the final four minutes to advance to the second round Saturday night against No. 7 Alisal (15-9).

“We didn’t finish well and didn’t shoot it well,” Stephens said. “Credit to [Milpitas].”