Sequoia advances to finals at Newark tourney

Sequoia (6-3 overall) faced its biggest test of the season Saturday night and rallied after a slow start to enjoy a 52-41 victory over Lynbrook (6-2) in the semifinals of the Newark Memorial Tournament of Champions. The Ravens now advance to Monday’s tournament championship game to face Lick-Wilmerding-San Francisco in Newark at 7:45 p.m.

“I’m really proud of our starting five,” Dulsky said. “Because we all worked really hard and we all stepped up with the injury, and the graduating senior. I’m not that surprised. We work really hard in practice.”

The Ravens struggled for most of the first half but Dulsky helped turn it around before the break. Lynbrook junior Lydian Li hammered home a layup to give her team a 26-16 lead with three minutes to go in the half. Sequoia responded with a 12-0 run that extended into the second half.

“After the first half we were all really hyped,” Dulsky said. “I could feel it in the locker room, we all had a lot of energy, and I think we were all determined to get the win. Just looking at everybody, I could tell we all had a lot of energy and it showed in our defense.”

Two big scores before the break set the stage for the comeback. Sequoia’s two newest starters connected on the heels of a Lynbrook turnover for a bucket when junior center Janet Ortega-Ramirez kicked to sophomore Maryjane Hartman, who drilled a 10-foot jumper. Then Sequoia regained possession off a steal from Jackson, who pushed it up to Dulsky for a 3-pointer with 40 seconds to go to close it to 26-24.

Prior to the two steals to end the half, Lynbrook had turned over the ball just twice to Sequoia’s nine. By the end of the night, Sequoia committed 11 total turnovers to Lynbrook’s 14.

“I thought we made we made some nice adjustments defensively,” Sequoia head coach Steve Picchi said. “A step here and a step there, and I talked to them about that. It’s not always big blatant things.”

Jackson’s prowess to start the second half was pretty blatant though. The junior gave the Ravens the lead three times by scoring nine points in the third quarter, including her team’s first seven points of the half.

First she converted a transition layup to give Sequoia its first lead of the night 28-26. Lynbrook junior Maison Yee responded with a 3 to swing the Vikings back in front 29-28. But Jackson rallied her team right back to score an and-1, putting the Ravens up 31-29.

Lynbrook tied it 34-34 when senior Julia Lin knocked down a jumper from just inside the arc. But Jackson scored the last field goal of the quarter to put Sequoia back up for good as the Ravens went on runs of 7-0 and 15-2.

“[Jackson] always plays great,” Dulsky said. “She’s always a leader. She always does well on defense, does well on offense. She really picks us up as a team. She leads our offense, she gets so many steals, she’s just an all-around really great player.”

Sequoia shot carefully but effectively throughout, hitting 50% from the field while attempting just 36 shots. Lynrbook shot just 32.6% from the field, including 5 of 24 on 3-poniters, and just a 2-of-15 clip from beyond the arc in the first half.

“I would like to give our defense some of the credit, always.” Picchi said. “I’d like to think when a team doesn’t shoot well against us that it has something to do with our defense. I can’t guarantee that and prove it. But I’d sure like to think that.”

Sequoia’s ability to play physical in the post had big implications down the stretch. Lynbrook’s Lin and Hali’a Yee each fouled out midway through the fourth quarter. And Jackson continued to rally the Ravens, totaling five steals on the night, four of them coming in the fourth quarter.

“We try not to commit a lot of fouls by playing really good ‘D’ with our feet and that happened tonight,” Picchi said. “Especially against teams that want to play uptempo and pressure us, if we’re tough enough and we do a good job, we can sometimes have more advantage in the fouls, which means we shoot more free throws, it means some of their kids have to sit out more of the game. So, that’s part of our game plan.”

Lynbrook outrebounded Sequoia 29-26, with Jackson leading the Ravens with six boards. Ortega-Ramirez gathered a key offensive rebound midway through the fourth quarter though to score a put-back.

The 5-10 junior has some big shoes to fill, taking over for 2018-19 Daily Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year Soana Afu, now playing NAIA women’s basketball at UC Merced. Ortega-Ramirez said she was surprised when she got announced as the starting center in her first varsity game this year.

“When he first put me in I was surprised … because I was from JV and I didn’t think I was that good,” Ortega-Ramirez said.

Li led all scorers with 16 points. Dulsky dropped a team-high 15 points for Sequoia, while Jackson added 13 and Kurland 11.

“We’re a shorter team than last year, so the whole team steps up,” Dulsky said. “We all have to rebound more, we all have to be more aggressive because we don’t have the height advantage like last year. So, I think we all play really well together, we all rebound, we all play great defense. So, I think this year we all just have to play harder.”