Menlo finishes off SHP with a flourish

While sophomore point guard Avery Lee was pivotal in both sprees, it was junior forward Maeia Makoni who took over the game in the fourth quarter. Lee and Makoni shared the game-high with 18 points apiece. But, 15 of Makoni’s points came in the closing period.

“She is one of our team captains,” Menlo head coach John Paye said of Makoni, “and the girls love her.”

SHP (1-3, 10-6) responded with its tandem of junior guard Charlotte Levison and sophomore center Megan Norris. Both finished in double digits, with Levison going for a team-high 16 points and Norris adding 12.

It was after a critical Levison miss, however, that the game spiraled out of control for the Gators. Trailing 33-31 at the start of the fourth quarter, SHP took a Menlo turnover and created a 2 on 1, with Levison leading the charge. She opted to take it to the hoop herself — a safe bet with the impressive strength of several of her previous dribble-drive finishes — but the ball hit front iron for the miss.

Instead of looking at their first even footing since the game’s opening minutes, the Gators got buried in a landslide of missed shots and turnovers from there.

“I don’t know how much that changed the feel one way or another for us,” SHP head coach Melanie Murphy said. “We were just missing a lot of shots today. … We got it to within 2 but it kind of snowballed after that.”

SHP committed 26 turnovers throughout, including 13 in the closing period.

The pressure defense of Menlo’s full-court press has a way of instigating turnovers. But everything went against SHP over the final seven minutes.

And everything was going right for Makoni, who impresses as a girls’ high school version of Draymond Green. The junior wasn’t much of a presence in the post, as she totaled just three rebounds. In fact, SHP outrebounded Menlo 32-29 throughout. But once Makoni got going from long range, there was no stopping her.

After hitting a 3 to give the Knights a 38-31 lead, she drew a foul from beyond the arc on the following possession and knocked down all three free-throws to push the lead to 41-31.

“I think that kind of broke the ice,” Paye said.

The Knights were hot and cold from the field, shooting just 34 percent in the game. In the fourth quarter, though, they were 6 of 9 from the field.

After Menlo graduated six seniors last year, including three starters, Paye didn’t know what to expect this season. But the Knights are off to a faster start than their red-hot 10-1 opening in 2017-18. This year, they have won 14 of their first 15.

“We’re excited,” Paye said. “It was hard to tell about what was going to happen with this team. … We have a tough league and we’re right in the middle of it. Every game is a battle for us.”