Sunnyvale – The Sobrato girls basketball team dropped a pair of games at the Kings Academy Tournament, losing 64-36 against Prospect and 51-40 against Sacred Heart Prep.
“Every team that played in the tournament played in the (Central Coast Section) playoffs,” said coach Rodney Tabares. “We played against some well rounded teams.”
The Bulldogs, who fall to 1-3 overall, opened the tournament on Thursday facing a Prospect team that Tabares said had a clear height advantage.
“They had one player that was 6-3; they had another one at 6-1,” Tabares said.
Sobrato has one player above six feet tall.
Leading the way for the Bulldogs was Shealyn Kunze who scored 21 points.
Tabares said his team was able to hang with the Panthers, trailing 18-17 after the first quarter of play.
“After the first quarter, I thought we were going to do well,” Tabares said. “Though as the game went on, they were able to push up the lead.”
The rest of the three quarters of play, the Bulldogs tacked on an additional 19 points.
On Friday, the Bulldogs were able to hang in the game better, but weren’t able to get an offensive push to pull ahead of the Gators.
“They were very well coached and had some very good athletes,” Tabares said.
Kunze led the way for Sobrato with 13 points.
Defensively, Tabares said he was pleased with Laura Billos, who pulled down 12 rebounds.
Tabares said he was happy with how the defense performed, especially in the second half.
“We switched to a man defense,” Tabares said. “By doing that, we were able to press better. I thought it worked well in our favor.”
The Bulldogs will next host the Sobrato Shootout and will open against Live Oak on Thursday.
Tabares said he hopes the game will become an annual event with both teams competing for a title belt.
The game will be played in the Sobrato gym starting at 7:30pm.
