SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomore Audrey Bashore poured in a career-best 26 points to go with 10 rebounds while freshman Emmy Cheatham knocked a trio of three-pointers, but St. Francis lost pace late in the opening frame in losing to Davis, 54-43, in a junior varsity-only Sierra Foothill League girls' basketball contest Thursday night.
The Troubadours finish their season with an 8-18 record.
Bashore has split time between St. Francis' varsity and JV squads throughout the year, usually lending a hand to the younger program when it's short-handed. She scored 16 points in the final period, including eight during the final eight points when the Troubies were reduced to four on the floor due to an injury and player fouling out.
Cheatham scored back-to-back buckets, including her first trey of the game, in boosting SF to a 5-0 start. However, Blue Devil freshman Julia Schlemmer hit three field goals in an 11-2 run that gave her team an 11-7 lead. Bashore opened the second period with a drive, assisted Cheatham's second three-pointer at the 3:10 mark, then made 3 of 4 on two different trips to the free-throw line, but Davis stayed out in front. Maya Nosek, Schlemmer and Elliot Schapira scored in succession to turn an early 11-9 margin into a 17-9 edge, then Schlemmer struck twice more down the stretch. Schlemmer and Schapira each led Davis with 14 points in the contest.
Jocelyn Villaflor assisted Jocelyn Dickinson on an backcourt steal with 5:57 in the third to set the board at 25-18, but Davis scored three times in the span of 49 seconds to push its lead well into double figures at 31-18. Bashore rattled in a three-pointer with 4:11 to go and Cheatham drained another from almost the same spot with 2:27 left, but the Blue Devils continued to convert second-chance and transition points in extending their advantage to 42-25 heading into the fourth.
Villaflor had two assists to match Cheatham in that department, but could have had two more. A quarterback during flag football season and a member of the SF softball team, she showed off her throwing arm in two long outlet passes that caught her teammate in perfect stride downcourt. The first did not convert to points, as Davis took care of business defensively. The second strike resulted in a pair of Bashore free throws on the other end – a play that counts as an assist in international hoop, but not in the U.S.
Bashore scored nearly every Troubadour point in the fourth, save for Brooklyn Nauman's nifty jump stop at the 6:31 mark. She converted two three-point plays then sank another three-pointer with 25 ticks remaining, but St. Francis did not reduce the deficit to single digits until that final bomb.
Bashore's output lifted her season total to 139 in nine games on loan for the Troubie jayvees. Her previous high was 18, performed against Inderkum (Nov. 30) and Oak Ridge (Jan. 16). Bashore's load management between the two squads makes her eligible to play in Friday's varsity regular-season finale at Davis.
St. Francis varsity takes on the Blue Devils at 5:30 p.m. as part of the SFL Friday doubleheader with Jesuit. The Troubies will then learn of their Sac-Joaquin Section postseason fate on Saturday.
