Crystal Springs Uplands girls’ basketball steals one from Notre Dame-Belmont

“Defense is what leads to offense for me,” Lacap said. “So, I know that I need to get a couple steals first and that will help me gain confidence.”

NDB (2-1, 7-3) led most of the first half, and took a 23-19 advantage into the break. But with the game deadlocked 27-27 with three minutes to go in the third quarter, Crystal Springs went on a 17-0 steamroller run to run away with the win.

“Basketball can be a game of runs,” Crystal Springs head coach David Weinstein said. “I think for us, especially today, our defense really did everything for us. It started everything for us.”

The Gryphons were able to cure the turnover bug, committing 17 turnovers throughout, but 11 of them coming in the first half. NDB went on to commit 20 turnovers overall.

The Tigers are also trying to establish a rhythm since adding transfer Ally and Abby Co, a twin sister combo of juniors from Half Moon Bay. The sisters were effective, especially in the first half. Ally Co shared the team-high in scoring of 10 points with senior Sophia Dinelli. Abby Co added eight points, with a pair of perimeter 3s in the first half.

“I think it’s kind rocky because everyone is trying to get a feel for Abby and I joining the team,” Ally Co said. “And I think we just need to have better communication with everyone … and be good teammates.”

But the Co sisters’ basketball talent precedes them, and the Gryphons were keying on the formidable tandem.

“We knew that on the other team they had the twins, so we knew that we had to match their offensive play,” Lacap said. “So, we kind of had matchup sets. So, we knew what they did and how to stop them.”

The strategy ultimately paid off, but it took some time for Crystal Springs to find its footing.

NDB trailed just once in the first half, and only briefly, with two minutes remaining in the opening quarter. Lacap nabbed a steal and scored swiftly in transition to give the Gryphons an 11-10 advantage.

But a Tigers timeout righted the ship. NDB ran a set play out of the timeout, taking back the lead on a timing layup from Ally Co off a sweet bounce pass from Abby Co. NDB got the ball right back off a Crystal turnover and Abby Co turned it into points with a strong dribble-drive to the cylinder to make it 14-11.

“I think that’s just a sister thing,” NDB head coach Sam Rossi said. “It’s exciting to finally see them play. Their first games were last week because of the transfer rule. So, we’re just starting to play now with our team too.”

There were some long stretches mired by scoring droughts, especially for Crystal Springs. The Gryphons trailed by 4 heading into the second quarter but wouldn’t convert their first field goal of the period until 1:05 before halftime when Maile Bateman banked a transition layup off a steal from Lacap, cutting the NDB lead to 23-17.

Crystal Springs took some momentum into the halftime locker room closing the period with a six-foot floater from Raelyn Dela Cruz, to make it 23-19.

But the Gryphons were reborn in the second half. A perimeter 3 by Lacap gave Crystal Springs and early 25-24 advantage. Then with the score tied at 27, junior Morgan Cook popped a perimeter 3 to spark the 17-point run.

While NDB touts two big additions in the Co sisters, the return of Cook has given Crystal Springs quite a jolt. Despite joining the varsity team at the outset of her freshman year, Wednesday marked just the fourth game of her career. The first was the 2019-20 opener, during which she suffered an injury from which she did not return until last week against Menlo.

“She just gives us a lot of inspiration and was really playing well today,” Weinstein said. “So, it’s kind of all coming together.”

Weinstein has a young team on his hands, with a roster of three juniors, four sophomores, one freshman and no seniors. Weinstein is himself new to the team — kind of. He returned to Crystal Springs this year after coaching there in 2015-16 and 2016-17. He spent the next three years coaching the Burlingame freshman girls’ team and served as varsity head coach of Urban-San Francisco last year.

Crystal Springs is in the midst of something of a girls’ basketball renaissance though. Last season under head coach Sean Mulhern, they captured the Central Coast Section Division V championship, the first in its program’s history. The Gryphons’ success prompted a promotion to the upper echelon of the West Bay Athletic League to the Foothill Division this year.

Wednesday’s win over perennial CCS qualifier NDB was another big win on the Gryphons’ road to themselves becoming a basketball power.

“It definitely means a lot,” Lacap said. “Coming into the upper division, we knew that it would be tough, that we’d have to step up our game. So, this was definitely a big win in our book.”