Westmoor girls take down Woodside

The Ram stifled and frustrated South Division co-champion Woodside High School the entire game and rode that to a 48-36 win.

"Our girls are confident no matter who we play," said Westmoor head coach Michael Keough. "We're just looking forward to bringing the title up north."

"We just got flustered," said Woodside head coach Haley Grossman. "We're not sure about our passes and that leads to the turnovers. They're faster than us, so the turnovers turned into transition points."

It was one of those games that typified Woodside near season's end. Turnovers are their Achilles' heel and Friday night at Sequoia High School was no exception. Westmoor jumped out to an 8-0 lead by forcing the Wildcats into turnovers on their first five possessions of the game. It'd be a theme throughout. Woodside looked unprepared for Westmoor's quickness on defense. By the time the first quarter ended, the score was only 14-12 in favor of Westmoor but it could have been worse considering Woodside had already turned the ball over 12 times. At 46 percent shooting for the period, giving possessions away hurt the Wildcats immediately.

"Our press was the key," Keough said. "When it's working and we're shooting the ball well, we're hard to stop."

Westmoor began showing signs of running away with the game in the second quarter. Marlene Alcantara caught a little fire with the game tied at 16, dropping the next five points to give Westmoor back its advantage.

It's one they never gave back.

The Rams actually closed out the half on a 10-2 run to lead 26-18.

"We just had a lot of negativity going on with our team today," Grossman said. "So, I knew with the way my team's frustration was that it was going to be really hard for us to come back."

Westmoor extended that 10-2 run from the first half into the third quarter by scoring the first even points to lead 33-18. But if you've seen Woodside play in recent weeks, you know they're never quite out of the game and they have a tendency to storm back.

But on Friday, there would be no comeback. The Wildcats simply could not find any offensive rhythm. For the game, they shot 24 percent. "They were tired, mentally and physically," Grossman said.

Woodside did out-rebound the smaller Rams 43-21.

Alcantara led the Rams with 17 points. Her sister Marinel Alcantara finished with 10.

For the Wildcats, 2013 PAL South All-League First Team member Madison Michelis scored 16 points and brought down 10 rebounds.