Girls’ hoops is one wild arena

There was more contributing to the rugby-style affair, though. High-octane defensive presses aside, players were getting roughed up after grabbing rebounds, rarely drawing foul calls. Terra Nova head coach Kawann Summerville and South City head coach Paul Carion each chalked it up to letting the players play, and both agreeing the game was called good and evenly by the three-man referee crew.   

“I thought they were very consistent,” Carion said. “I thought they set a tone. It’s two good teams out there with a lot of physical players in it, and they allowed the game to be physical. They called the fouls that needed to be called. And I thought they did an excellent job.”

The game came to a sudden halt in the fourth quarter, however, when Terra Nova sophomore Kapua Wong Hin crashed the floor in attempting to defend a layup by South City sophomore Alex Salise. Hin fell backward, causing her to hit her head hard on the floor. After a five-minute injury stoppage, as Terra Nova’s trainer ran through detailed preliminary concussion protocol, Hin was helped off the floor and did not return to the game.

Hin was cleared to play Monday, and practiced with the team. Summerville said she will be ready to play in the PAL girls’ basketball tournament, starting next Monday.

The irony of the play is it was actually one of the cleanest, smoothest basketball plays of the night. The 5-3 Salise bulled to the hoop and got there just prior to Hin, who sidestepped over from the sideline, with the collision causing the taller 5-8 defender to get thrown backward. Salise made the layup and a foul was called on Hin.

“We try to be careful because the season’s still going on, so we want to be safe and healthy,” said Salise, who converted the free throw for the and-1. “It’s just that we’ve got to keep playing our hardest and help our team.”

Playing hard, in the girls’ sport, often translates to a much more rambunctious game than in the boys’ arena, oftentimes caused by girls not taking care of the ball as fluidly across the board.

“In the 11 years I’ve been here, I’ve tried to teach the girls, OK, you can play physical, you can get after it, you can get the balls loose,” Summerville said. “In all reality, it’s about who wants it the most. You’ve got two good teams going head to head. They played physical; we must play physical.”

In the modern era of PAL hoops, no one knows more about the physical nature of the girls’ game than former Westmoor head coach Corey Cafferata. Now the head coach of the women’s team at Mission College-Santa Clara, Cafferata was renowned for his Westmoor team’s PAL North Division dynasty through the 2000s.

“They’re looked upon as probably soft … but some of those girls are really tough,” Cafferata said.

Cafferata’s players got after it, and he encouraged it with abandon. To start practices, the colorful coach would often walk into the Westmoor gym, roll a ball to half court and simply say: “Go.” What followed was a well-refined free-for-all, and Cafferata would step back and just let his players play.

“What’s acceptable is the girls running through a wall without deliberately trying to hurt anybody … and what is not acceptable is when you do that,” Cafferata said. “And then when that happens, it turns into less of a basketball game ... and becomes more of a street fight.”

By this math, a rebound by South City senior Karizma Bergesen — during which she got surrounded by three players and punched in the head by a defender attempting to knock the ball loose, with no foul called — is fair game.

“The refs can only do so much,” Cafferata said. “It’s going to come down to what team hits the shots … and is cool under pressure. But the aggressive style, it’s very common with the girls. I’d rather have aggressive girls than ones who are going to cry every time they get hurt.”

Cafferata was keen to point out preparing players for the next level means preparing them for another world of physicality. The man likely knows what he is talking about, seeing as his Mission team is sitting in first place in the Coast South Conference.

Summerville said there is a mode of preparation simply for non-league games at the high school level, where private school leagues, such as the West Catholic Athletic League, often play a tougher brand of basketball.

“When you play the WCAL and all the private schools, yeah, they’re going to give you everything they’ve got,” Summerville said. “And if you’re not up for that challenge, you’re coming away with a loss. And basically it’s a blowout.”

And as Carion summed up, being aggressive can be the secret to not getting hurt, he said.

“We do have some strong girls,” Carion said. “We do play an aggressive style. We’re going for every ball. I’m always of the belief that when you’re the aggressor … it’s the person who isn’t aggressive that gets hurt.”