Hometown SportS Third-quarter collapse dooms Heritage girls

Patriots’ basketball regional tournament run ends against St. Mary’s, 77-62

By Jeff Weisinger Staff Writer

What would have been quite the underdog run for the Heritage High School girls basketball team turned into heartbreak Tuesday night at St. Mary’s in Stockton.

An entire third-quarter collapse cost the Patriots in their 77-62 loss to the Rams Tuesday night, ending their season with three consecutive tournament losses, the first two in the NCS Open tournament bracket followed by Tuesday night’s loss in the first round of the CIF regionals.

But Tuesday night was the most frustrating of the tournament skid. Heritage, the 16th seed, took the top-seed St. Mary’s Rams head on throughout the first half, exchanging leads throughout and entering the halftime break down by one after a clutch three pointer by junior guard Kendall McClure brought Heritage to within one at 31-30..

“We were just super excited for what we were doing,” Heritage senior center

Amanda Muse said. “The message (at halftime) was to keep the energy up and keep pushing like we were because they hadn’t been challenged like that. So just being able to do that was really impressive for us.”

However, everything fell apart in the third quarter.

Junior guard Grace Hernandez drew a foul to open the third, but missed both free throws that would’ve put Heritage back in front. Instead, St. Mary’s respond- ed with a corner three by senior forward Nyah Lowery, sparking a 28-point quarter by the Rams to effectively end any hopes of a Heritage upset. Heritage was held scoreless until 3:40 left in the third when junior Aliyah Rollins’ layup ended St. Mary’s then-12-0 run.

“I thought they played great,” Heritage head coach Mark Hurtado said about that first half. “We executed our defense and offense perfectly and it showed on the court.”

“We knew they were going to go on a run, and we just missed free throws we expected to make during that time. We didn’t score any points within a couple of minutes so that kind of put us back in a tough spot. Then we started throwing the ball around, and (St. Mary’s) just didn’t miss any shots.”

“We just had a rough third quarter,” Muse added. “Other than that, we played them neck and neck, and I’m just super proud of how we finished.”

Despite trailing by as much as 23 into the fourth, Heritage found a way to claw back late, but it wasn’t enough.

St. Mary’s was unafraid to fire from deep on Tuesday night, adjusting to the Patriots’ zone defense in the second half. The Rams hit from deep 15 times Tuesday night, led by freshman guard Mia Jamias’ seven three-pointers on her way to tying a game-high 21 total points along with junior guard Jordan Lee. St. Mary’s saw four players score in double digits along with the 21 by Jamias and Lee. Lowery finished with 16 and senior guard Saulele Tanuvasa finished with 14.

Muse, the All-American senior, finished with a team-high 16 points with Rollins scoring 12 and McClure, 11, although both Rollins and McClure got into double digits towards the end of the game.

To view a slideshow, visit www.thepress. net/multimedia/slideshows