SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Senior Lexi London drained four three-pointers as part of her team-high 17 points, freshman Elise Vipond added two more, while junior Natalia Zitelli matched her season best of six steals but St. Francis failed to overcome its slow start in falling by a 71-42 final in the varsity nightcap of the "Holy Hoops" non-league tripleheader against Christian Brothers Saturday afternoon.

The Troubadours split to 8-9 overall, playing in their final non-Sierra Foothill League date of the regular season. The Falcons, ranked third in the Sac-Joaquin Section and second among the area's Division II programs, improve to 16-2 for the year.

Vipond finished with 10 points, two ahead of Hassanah Ramsey-Gilbert in the scoring column. Zitelli also shot 2 of 4 from the field for five points. Senior Colleen Medina led the SF rebounding with seven, five on the offensive end.

CB senior wing Joy Omishakin scored six of her eventual 19 points in the first three minutes of play to catapult the Falcons to an initial 8-0 start, then Journey Williams added six points within another three-minute stretch to extend that lead to 19-3. CB never allowed its host to within single digits the rest of the way. Omishakin's drive at the 3:42 mark in the second period bumped the lead to 20-plus for the first time at 32-11.  

London ended the half in the same way she finished the first period—sinking a last-second trey—reducing the halftime lead to 42-18. Still, the Falcons surpassed a 30-point lead on Olivia Novi's weakside rebounds and putback at the 1:36 mark, making it 56-25. Novi went on to score three more times in the first part of the fourth, bringing her scoring total to 22 points and giving CB its largest lead at 66-28.

St. Francis responded with a 12-2 run during a 2:22 stretch in the final frame. Ramsey-Gilbert began the comeback effort by turning a Medina inbound pass into points in the paint at 4:55, London's and Medina's backcourt trap turned into a short fast break for Zitelli at 4:20, and Vipond made both free throws after getting fouled in transition at 3:31. Vipond later assisted London on a three-pointer from the left side at 2:43, then a Zitelli steal at midcourt allowed London to return to favor to Vipond for another long-range bucket. That closed the gap somewhat to a 68-40 margin with 2:33 left, but CB managed to solve the Troubie press and cruise for the remainder.

The varsity contest completed an overall sweep for Christian Brothers for the day. In the opener, Lily Jimenez buried a pair of three-pointers while Maeva Mahlmann and Ella Renzo each added four points, but JV Red saw its 5-3 start wither to a 17-8 halftime hole before dropping a 41-19 loss to the Falcons in the opener. Freshman Emily Nguyen assisted treys by Jimenez and Sadie Favreau while draining a midrange jumper off the glass for her team's only go-ahead score.

JV Gold lost to CB, 42-27, in a game with some wild swings in the first half. Falcon sophomore Scarlett Reid recovered from getting swatted by both Emmy Cheatham and Lena Mundhenk in the opening minute to scoring back-to-back in establishing an 11-0 lead. However, Troubies Audrey Bashore and Anna Maranto assisted each other on three-pointers in helping SF battle back to a 12-12 tie.  

Then four different CB players combined for nine points to start the second, and the Falcons never trailed after that. St. Francis saw its 24-15 halftime deficit balloon to a 31-16 hole late in the third. Then Cheatham assisted Saihej Sekhon at the 5:20 mark in the fourth, and followed by setting up Peyton Smith's three-pointer at 4:07 mark, before Bashore got one more point at the stripe with 3:29, all of which pulled the Troubies to within a 34-27 deficit. Unfortunately for SF, the Falcons scored eight unanswered to finish.

 

Bashore finished with a team-leading 10 points, mostly from the free-throw line. Sekhon added six, Cheatham had four, with Smith and Maranto adding three each from their work beyond the arc.

St. Francis JV Gold and varsity will return to action in a home SFL doubleheader against Folsom on Tuesday. Both teams previously had a Martin Luther King Day visit to Sheldon on the schedule, but recently canceled the date. JV Red also had a January 20 non-league home game with Nevada Union on its slate, but postponed that visit to February 10. Instead, the youngest Troubie squad waits until Thursday's road set at Davis.