DANVILLE -- The undefeated Wolfpack of St. Raymond rolled into Monte Vista High School to take on a tough St. Isidore team. Like the Wollfpack last week, St. Isidore went into the game with only 5 players, meaning they had no substitutes. Only having 5 players didn’t seem to be a problem at first for St. Isidore, as they all played tough defense and ran the court well. For the first time this year, the Wolfpack found themselves trailing at halftime, 9-4.

In the third quarter, Maddie Taylor took the Wolfpack on her tiny back and vaulted them into a 14-11 lead. Maddie scored 8 of her game high 10 points in the third quarter. The Wolfpack’s press especially paid off in the third quarter, leading to turnovers and generally making the St. Isidore team work harder and run faster than they would have liked, which in turn tired them out due to their lack of substitutes.

In the fourth quarter, the Wolfpack had multiple chances to put St. Isidore away, but just couldn’t get the ball to fall through the net. Both Jillian Weber and Maddie Taylor took two free throws that just missed, which could have put the game out of reach, but as it turned out, St. Isidore made one shot in the fourth quarter making the score 14-13.

With 33 seconds to go, St. Isidore broke through the Wolfpack’s press, but in the process, Hailey Meyer stole the ball for the Wolfpack. Unfortunately, the time keeper did not start the clock and that is when things got strange. Instead of restarting back at the Wolfpack’s endline or giving the ball to the Wolfpack where they stole the ball and running 5 seconds off the clock, the St. Isidore coaches somehow persuaded the referees to give the ball to St. Isidore at the half with 3 seconds off the clock. The Wolfpack played tough defense and Breyan Ashley came down with the rebound and brought the ball up with under 15 seconds left in the game. The referees then called a suspect double dribble on Breyan, thus giving the ball back to St. Isidore with only 10.6 seconds left in the game. The Wolfpack stayed with their press, but St. Isidore broke it and got the ball to a player 15 feet from the basket who took a tough shot. The shot went long, but St. Isidore grabbed the rebound just under the basket with less than 2 seconds to go. The Wolfpack tried to converge on the player, but they were too late and she got a chance to take an uncontested shot right under the basket. The St. Isidore player had to rush her shot and didn’t make it, but they definitely had the shot they were looking for and could have come away with the win.

I think the coaches and parents were all impressed with the Wolfpack’s ability to battle back after being down by 7 points. It was a very intense game, especially that last quarter. All the Wolfpack parents were very impressed by the coaching job done by Coach Mark, Coach Mike and Coach Kevin. After seeing the other coaches in the league, we all know how lucky we are to have such good coaches and really good guys working with our girls. Thanks so much.

Game Stats:
Scoring
Maddie Taylor 10
Breyan Ashley 4

Assists
Sammy Maguire 1
Hailey Meyer 1
Jillian Weber 1

Season Stats:
Scoring
Breyan Ashley 27
Maddie Taylor 24
Jillian Weber 6
Sammy Maguire 4
Tess Molinar 4
Hailey Meyer 4
Alexis Hooper 2

Assists
Maddie Taylor 5
Tess Molinar 3
Alexis Hooper 2
Sammy Maguire 2
Hailey Meyer 2
Jillian Weber 2
Nikki 1

Wolfpack 71
Opponents 35