Live Oak sends off seniors with 51-28 win over Mt. Pleasant

Live Oak sent its three seniors out right, with a 51-28 win over Mt. Pleasant Tuesday.
“It’s just amazing to play with my teammates, especially with the two seniors: With Emily, I played with her since freshman year, and Hanna came up sophomore year, so it’s good to end with a win,” said senior Jocelyn Mendoza.
The girls basketball team held the Santa Teresa Division’s last place team to one bucket in the first and fourth quarters. Both times, the Cardinals scored the first basket of the period and could only watch as the Acorns went on long scoring runs.
In the first quarter, after going up 3-0, Mt. Pleasant watched the Acorns go on a 13-0 run that lasted into the second.
Later, in the fourth quarter, Live Oak gave up the first points then sent on a 17-0 run to end the game.
The girls set a defensive goal to not give up 30 points in the game and put the hammer down after yielding the 28^th point.
“To this game, once we started setting goals for ourselves, not one team has reached that goal,” said coach Mike Kiefer. “They’re digging down deep and finding a way to keep a team from putting the ball in the bucket and they’re finding a way to box out even though we’re typically the smaller team.”
The biggest thing Live Oak did was deny Mt. Pleasant inside. During the long scoring runs, the Acorns didn’t allow clean looks in the paint.
In the first quarter, the Cardinals didn’t so much as get a shot inside of 10 feet.
“That was kind of the game plan to take everything away and force them out,” Kiefer said. “No. 10, Riviera, is a (darn) good player and we know a lot of stuff feeds through her. We knew if we take her away, they tend to get confused. That’s kind of what happened, but then we got a little flat.”
After Live Oak’s first scoring run ended, the game got very even.
From the 5:30 mark of the second quarter through the end of the third, Mt. Pleasant actually outscored Live Oak 23-21.
“I felt we flat. The 50 points, that’s one thing, but what we need to do is play that first and fourth quarter in the second and third also,” Kiefer said.
Even so, the Acorns won the battle on the glass.
Live Oak, led by Amy Gunther’s 10 boards, out rebounded the Cardinals 42-27.
Gunther also led the team with 15 points.
Fayth Lyon followed with 13 points and Ilisapeti Saulala with seven.
On senior night, all three seniors got out on the floor for the first time since Jan. 7 against Leland. Emily Conlan was hurt her knee in that game and has been out since.
She was in the game just a handful of minutes, but received a loud ovation each time she came out.
Conlan had a couple of shots and battled under the basket after a loose ball, but didn’t come away with stats.
Her teammate Hanna Doting had six points and two rebounds in her last night on the home court.
Mendoza finished with six points and nine boards in the win.
Before the game, all three were honored on the court with their families receiving flowers, balloons and gift baskets from their teammates.
Live Oak will finish out the regular season on the road against Leigh 7 p.m. Thursday.