ROCKLIN, Calif. – Freshman guard Mackenzie Tan buried three three-pointers en route to a team-high 11 points but St. Francis junior varsity Gold hoop squad ultimately fell to an undefeated Pleasant Valley, 52-38, in the Rocklin Winter Tournament Blue Bracket semifinal round Wednesday night.
The Troubadours move to 7-3 for the year, while the Vikings improve to 15-0 overall.
Tan hit her three fourth-quarter treys in succession, banking in shots from the left side at the 4:32 and 3:10 marks, respectively. The second bucket cut the deficit to 41-35 but that proved to be the closest St. Francis approached down the final stretch.
Guard Sydney Teoh scored on a three-pointer and a driving layup as part of a 7-0 run early in the second, giving the Troubies an 18-11 lead at the 5:47 mark. Post Amanda Cloninger later powered her way to a layup with 3:45 to go before the halftime break, making it 20-16. On the next trip down, Cloninger drew contact and went to the free-throw line, where she sank the second to extend the SFHS lead to 21-16.
However, that ignited a run of 13 unanswered points for Pleasant Valley, including back-to-back threes from freshman guard Shannon Fong plus another bomb from Viking standout Nyah Fortune with seconds left before the break.
Pleasant Valley led 25-21 at halftime and extended its lead to 29-21 before Teoh's baseline drive ended the drought with 2:34 remaining in the third.
Impressively, St. Francis held Fortune to a season-low six points, well below her average of 16.8 per contest. In fact, the 52-38 final is the closest any team has battled the Vikings since PV hosted Woodland Christian to a 34-33 thriller on December 17.
St. Francis was originally scheduled to play Folsom High at 6 p.m. in the consolation semifinals, but the Bulldogs were forced to withdraw from the tourney, and the Troubies were moved to the championship bracket against PV.
The Troubies will face either Del Oro or Oak Ridge in the tourney third-place game at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. The game will take place in Rocklin's main gym.
The game against Pleasant Valley was the second of two St. Francis games at Rocklin on Wednesday, as the JV Red team dispatched Oak Ridge by a 55-35 final in the frosh semifinal. Post Alexis Heise posted season bests of 22 points and 15 rebounds while guard Lilian Vicio hit three three-pointers as part of 14 tallies in the win.
REMINDER: St. Francis' varsity home game against Rocklin has moved from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday.
