Tigers roar back for win over Aragon

Saturday, the Tigers showed they could be the most resilient, too. Down by 14 points with 4:30 left in the third quarter, Terra Nova roared back for a 67-63 win over Aragon in the PAL tournament championship game at El Camino High. The Tigers (19-8) repeated as league playoff champions in style, staging a furious comeback in rallying past a tough and talented Aragon (17-6) team.

"Our girls are resilient,” Terra Nova coach Kareem Summerville said. "They have no pressure on them and they just go out and play basketball.”

Especially the Tigers’ dynamic duo of Ivyonne Cook Taylor and Terilyn Moe, who combined for 54 of their team’s 67 points. Taylor scored a season-high 30 points and Moe finished with 24. Time and again the ultra quick Taylor would go the length of the floor for driving layups, and Moe pulled up to hit a number of nice mid-range jumpers. The two had to carry the load more than usual because Terra Nova was without the services of Jayzyl Tauala, who was injured a night earlier in a semifinal win over Menlo-Atherton.

It took all Terra Nova had to surge past the Dons, who took a 45-31 lead on a 3-pointer from Emi Hashizume with 4:30 left in the third quarter. However, Terra Nova outscored Aragon 36-18 the rest of the way, including 23-12 in the final quarter. The difference was the Tigers’ full-court pressure finally getting to the Dons in the final eight minutes.

Aragon had done a nice job of consistently breaking Terra Nova’s vaunted press for the first three periods, committing only six turnovers in that span. But the Tigers forced the Dons into seven fourth-quarter turnovers, and they converted those miscues into 10 points. Cook Taylor, a Sacred Heart Cathedral-transfer, was simply superb.

The sophomore guard scored 22 of her 30 points in the second half, and was seemingly involved in all of the big momentum swings. Her coast-to-coast layup gave Terra Nova a 57-55 lead midway through the fourth — the team’s first advantage since scoring the opening basket of the game. The Dons came back strong — just like you knew they would — retaking the lead when Shelby Barthold (13 points) went the length of the floor for a layup followed by a free throw from Arteivia Lilomaiva (21 points).

However, the Dons had no answer for Cook Taylor, who repeatedly drove through the heart of the Aragon defense. Cook Taylor drained two free throws, then came up with a steal and layup to put the Tigers ahead 61-58 with 3:15 left. Aragon got to within one when Lilomaiva hit a short jumper on the ensuing possession, but that’s as close as it would get.

The Dons had a chance to make things really interesting at the end but turned the ball over coming off a timeout and trailing 66-63 with 13.4 seconds to go. Aragon was in control for most of the game, beating Terra Nova at its own game in a wild and entertaining back-and-forth contest. But the Tigers’ pressure finally got to the Dons, and once Terra Nova seized control it wasn’t about to give it back.

"Once we get the lead, it’s hard to take it from us,” Summerville said. "We switched to a different press and that’s when we turned it on in the fourth quarter. Ivyonne Cook Taylor was amazing tonight. Thirty points is unbelievable. I’ve actually seen her play a better game, but she was on tonight.”

Said Cook Taylor: "Something clicked in the fourth quarter. I knew I had to keep driving (to the basket) to get fouls and make plays.”

Aragon lost despite taking 32 more shots (84-52) than Terra Nova. The Dons did a number on the boards, finishing with 18 offensive rebounds. The Santa Clara-bound Lilomaiva had 13 rebounds and fellow post Tara Baldini had 14 rebounds. However, Aragon’s decisive advantage on the glass wasn’t enough to overcome the playmaking abilities of Cook Taylor and Moe, who were simply unstoppable.