Hillsdale Knights keep title hope alive

Carson has come on strong over the last couple weeks and the Knights’ win Friday kept them in the running for the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division title.

“She realizes she’s a senior and a captain,” said Hillsdale head coach Dan Mori. “She has bought in to being a team leader.”

Carson’s 3-pointer from the right corner tied the game at 28-all midway through the third quarter and her free throw at the end of the third gave the Knights a 36-34 lead going into the final period.

Hillsdale (5-2 PAL Bay, 18-3 overall) proceeded to miss its first nine field goal attempts of the fourth quarter. Half Moon Bay (3-4, 15-6), however, was having struggles of its own, so when Delaney Dorwin hit two free throws and added bucket in the paint to put the Cougars up 38-36, the Knights didn’t panic.

“We talked in the pregame about being resilient. Against Aragon (Wednesday, a 45-38 Dons’ win), we didn’t play very well.” Mori said. “In this game, everyone moved the ball and played much better team basketball offensively and defensively.”

And it was a Carson assist that finally broke the seal in the fourth, as she used a bounce pass to hit Lola Jones on a pick-and-roll that she converted to tie the game at 38 all.

Kiara Nitao hit 1 of 2 free throws to give Hillsdale the lead for good, 39-38, with 1:21 left before Carson took over down the stretch. She drained a 3 from the top of key to open up a 42-38 advantage and then hit four straight free throws in the final 22 seconds to ice the game.

“We’ve worked on keeping our composure a lot,” Carson said. “It feels good to finish at the end. I started off a little slow.

“But it really was a team effort. The first half I was forcing it a little bit, but my teammates kept us in the game in the first half.”

When Carson made two free throws with 22 seconds to go, it opened up a 44-40 lead, but HMB stayed in the game when Dorwin converted an old-fashion three-point play to close to 44-43 with 4.3 seconds left.

Dorwin finished with a game-high 24 points — scoring 16 of her team’s 20 second-half points.

“Dorwin is a star,” Mori said.

Carson answered by making two more free throws to push the lead back to three, 46-43. And when a Zoey Lemoge 3-point prayer from midcourt clanged off the side of the rim, the Knights had the win.

If was an exciting finish for a game that was close throughout. Both teams got off to a ragged start, with Dorwin finally getting the Cougars on the scoreboard after more than two minutes had elapsed.

The Knights had a tough time in the first quarter with HMB center Lemoge, who scored seven of her 11 points in the opening quarter. A six-point run to close the first period gave the Cougars a 16-12 lead.

The offensive struggles continued in the second quarter as shots simply weren’t falling for either team. Xochitl Nieves drained a 3-pointer to open the period and push HMB’s lead to to seven, 19-12. When Dorwin hit a bucket with 4:10 left, the Cougars were up 23-16, tying their largest lead of the game.

But HMB would scoreless the rest of the quarter, while Hillsdale got a 3 from Adison Wilmurt and a fastbreak layup from Nitao and the Knights were down 32-21 at the break.

Hillsdale scored the first two buckets of the second half — with Carson scoring on a putback and Daniella Sierra coming up with a steal and layup for a 25-23 Knights’ lead.

The Cougars responded with a unique three-point play. Lemoge made the first, but missed the second of two free throws. But Dorwin came up with the offensive rebound and drove in for layup to give HMB a three-point lead, 28-25.

Which was quickly eased on Carson’s corner 3.

From there it was back and forth the rest of the way.

It was a good bounce-back win for the Knights, who suffered the disappointing loss to Aragon Wednesday that dropped them out of a first-place tie with Menlo-Atherton. And they’ll stay a game behind the Bears, who beat Carlmont 52-39 to move to 7-1 in division play.

The Knights will have a chance to control their own fate as they’ll face two more Bay Division contenders, Mills and M-A, next Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

“Huge game,” Mori said of Friday’s win. “Today, they kept their poise and composure.”