Tigers take Bay title

Terra Nova sophomore guard Ivyonne Cook Taylor said she has probably made three buzzer-beating baskets in her career, but none were bigger than the one she made Friday night in Pacifica. Cook Taylor grabbed a rebound of a missed Terilyn Moe shot and made a short jumper as the buzzer sounded to give the Tigers not only a 60-58 win over Aragon, but the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship and the top seed in next week's PAL tournament. "We've been talking about it (winning a division title) all season," Cook Taylor said. "It's exciting." Aragon needed a win to forge a co-championship, but it was not to be. The Dons had the ball with 21 seconds to play and the game tied at 58, but Terra Nova came up with a steal to set up the game-winning sequence. Moe brought the ball up the court and drove to the hoop. Her layup attempt slid off the back of the rim, but Cook Taylor was there for her 12th rebound of the game and hit the short jumper that set off bedlam in the Terra Nova gym. Despite the heartbreaking loss, Aragon coach Annette Gennaro-Trimble was proud of the way her team played. "I thought we played a great game. I think we played for four quarters tonight. They played their hearts out," Gennaro-Trimble said. "I'm really proud of them. They did what I asked them to do -- play four quarters." The Dons' performance shows what they can do when they put a full game together. In their first meeting with Terra Nova, the Tigers blew them out by 17. Aragon showed early on it was going to be different the second time around as the Dons bolted to an early 11-2 lead in the first quarter. Terra Nova, to its credit, weathered the initial storm and quickly got back into the game, trailing by just three points at the end of the first quarter. The Tigers used a late 10-4 run to close the first half and take a 30-27 lead into halftime. The second half was much of the same as the two basketball heavyweights slugged it out. Everytime one threatened to pull away, the other responded. It's possible this could be a preview of the finals of the PAL tournament next weekend and both teams did enough to whet the appetite of fans around the Peninsula. How close was the game? There were six lead changes -- four in the fourth quarter alone -- and five ties. Terra Nova connected on 22 field goals while Aragon had 23. Both teams made 22 field goals and each had three players score in double figures. Even with an off night from Moe -- one of the top scorers in the Central Coast Section -- the rest of the Tigers picked up the slack. Ekelani Laolagi and Jayzyl Tauala both scored a team-high 17 points, while Cook Taylor added 11. Aragon was led by Arteivia Lilomaiva, who scored a game-high 21 points -- including the Dons' final 10 points of the game. Shelby Barthold had 18, with 11 coming in the first half, while Justine Kubo chipped in with 14. The difference, however, came from the rest of the squads. While Aragon got only four points from the rest of the team, the Tigers had 15. "It shows the resilience of this team." said Terra Nova coach Kareem Summerville. "It was a team effort all the way around." The other glaring difference was at the free-throw line. The Dons shot 70 percent from the charity stripe, knocking down 7 of 10 attempts. Terra Nova managed just 53 percent from the line, but the Tigers made more -- 14 -- than the Dons attempted. The Tigers took a total of 26 free throws. While the game was entertaining through the first three quarters, it was the fourth that had the fans on the edge of their seats as the teams combined to score 41 points. Aragon trailed by five, 42-37, going into the final eight minutes, but a trio of 3-pointers kept the Dons in the game. Down 49-48, Lilomaiva began her run of 10-straight points by hitting a layup off a fast break to put the Dons up 50-49. Ekelani Laolagi responded for the Tigers by hitting back-to-back buckets for a 53-50 Terra Nova advantage. The Dons came right back with a 6-0 Lilomaiva run with 1:59 to play and increased their lead to 58-54 when Lilomaiva converted a layup with one second left on the shot clock and 52 seconds left in the game. "We know [Lilomaiva] is going to get hers," Summerville said. "(The focus) was not to let anyone else beat us." The Tigers, however, scored the final six points of the game to steal the win.