Sobrato coach Erica Wallace said she had just implemented a full court press earlier in the week and had only spent a half hour teaching it.
Despite the crash course in the press, the Bulldogs forced Gunderson into eight turnovers and went on a 14-0 run to start the game and eventually took a 21-6 lead in the first quarter.
Sobrato didn’t let up and eventually pulled out a 55-31 win Tuesday night.
“We knew Gunderson is one of the top teams in the league and was a hard team to beat. It was something we had to really focus on and come together and stay focused,” Wallace said. “Even though we had that strong lead in the first quarter, we knew we couldn’t plateau. We knew that we had to keep our foot on the gas.”
Sobrato improves to 2-1 in South Division play and is 9-4 overall.
The Bulldog defense was relentless in the first half, forcing 12 turnovers and turning that into 15 points.
The Bulldogs scored on their first six possessions and converted on 11 of 16 possessions to start the game. The only exceptions were a pair of turnovers and three misses that turned into Gunderson rebounds going the other way.
Point guard KiannaBriel Maldia scored 18 points to lead all shooters and that was without really playing the fourth quarter where she didn’t score.
Guard Helena Batey had 13, nine of which came in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Savannah Ruiz had seven points with six points from Angeline Madriaga and Jessica Byrum.
Byrum had seven rebounds, joined by Karla Martinez to lead in that category. Batey had six boards with five from Maldia.
Wallace said while it is her job to be critical of her team to help make it better, she did admit there was not many thing she would change about that first quarter.
“Especially for the first time running the press—and we only went over it for about 30 minutes yesterday—it was as perfect as that scenario could get,” Wallace said. “It made me very happy. Defense makes me happy. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
For Gunderson, Danielle Gezzi had 11 points, all of which came in the first half.
Seven of those points came in the second quarter when Gunderson had its best frame, scoring 11 points to trail 29-17 at the half.
Maldia kept Sobrato afloat with five points to lead an eight-point second quarter.
Sobrato committed eight turnovers in the second quarter which allowed Gunderson to stick around.
About the only blemish on Sobrato’s night was the turnovers. The Bulldogs had 21 turnovers on the night, though six of those came in the fourth when the Bulldogs started to empty its bench.
The third quarter, the Bulldogs finally broke a 20-point lead mark, going on an 11-3 run to start the half. Sobrato eventually took a 45-24 lead going to the fourth quarter.
Gunderson was held to 14 points in the second half and none of those came from Gezzi.
Wallace was complementary of the Grizzlies’ point guard, noting how she is the catalyst for Gunderson’s big three on offense.
Wallace said it really came down to making sure the team knew where Gezzi was on the court at all times and denying her any great looks at the basket.
“I knew we were going to have to play up on her and take away her strong hand, even though she is really good with both hands,” Wallace said. “And also we had to know where she was at. Our goal was to know where she was at at all times on the floor and call it out.”
She added while it is easy on paper to take away one piece on Gunderson’s team, coach John Drake has a way to put his girls in possessions to capitalize even when a player like Gezzi is shut down.
“We really carried out our game plan of knowing where his top three players were at all times,” Wallace said.
Gunderson’s top three scorers—Gezzi, Chloe Ross and Samantha Tafaoimalo—were held to a combined 19 points for the night, with Ross scoring just two and post player Tafaoimalo hitting six.
Sobrato between the third and fourth quarters went on a 10-0 run that was eventually broken with 5:28 to play in the fourth quarter.
That eventually led to a near 30-point lead for the Bulldogs and allowed Sobrato to really empty the bench.
Beating Andrew Hill
After dropping its league opener against Oak Grove on Jan. 3, the Sobrato girls basketball team got back into the win column in a big way defeating Andrew Hill 57-17 on Jan. 5
Jessica Byrum and Helena Batey had double-doubles with both scoring 12 points. Batey had 13 rebounds and Byrum added 11.
It was the sophomore show as the third leading scorer for the Bulldogs with KiannaBriel Maldia scoring seven points.
The Bulldogs scored all it needed in the second quarter, putting up 17 in the frame as they went on to take a 27-10 lead at the break.
Hill never broke double figures in a quarter and was held to seven points in the second half, including two in the third quarter.
Sobrato will next take on Leland 7 p.m. Thursday.
