Friday, Jan. 18 saw the stands filled with buzz and excitement as the first quad game of the season kicked off. The designated theme for the game was “splash zone”, with students dressed in blue as they cheered on the girls and boys varsity teams.
The girls game tipped off at 6:15 p.m. against the visiting Burlingame Panthers, who were at an undefeated 4-0 in league games coming into this game, placing them first in the league. The Wildcats were looking to improve from a 2-2 league record, which placed them fifth in the league.
The Wildcats kept the score close in the first quarter, taking some deep shots from mid-range to beyond the three-point line to score 10 in the first. However, the Panthers were able to dominate on rebounds and interior scoring. With a majority of their 12 first-quarter points coming from second chances or layups.
“[Coming into the game] we were gonna pass the wing, we’re gonna overload the zone and then look to punish them inside,” girls varsity coach James Llantero said. “I think some of our passing definitely needed improvement.”
The Wildcats had a big second quarter, outsourcing the Panthers 11-6 as the Panther offense couldn’t keep up with the Wildcats.
“I want to highlight senior Lacey Barstad, a very unselfish player, a senior and she’s one of our top three scoring guards,” Llantero said. “And she just picked it up for us today. She led us in scoring, she kept the scoring drives alive with her three-point shooting, she had a nice up and under move for a layup amongst the trees. I’m really happy for her.”
The second half proved to be a much harder challenge for the Wildcats, however. Foul trouble, but more importantly, a sudden shift of momentum for the Panthers saw the Wildcats trail 34-29 at the end of the third quarter.
“Credit to the other team, they made adjustments. Kind of cut off some passing angles. We wanted to reverse the ball and sometimes we were disorganized in terms of attacking their closeouts,” Llantero said.
The fourth quarter became a ferocious competition between the two teams. The Wildcats, however, overcame the deficit and at one point came within two points of the Panthers. The Panthers were able to widen the gap, however, after the Wildcats got in some deep foul trouble, and the pressure of the fourth quarter became too much.
“We’ve got some high-energy players like Sophia Pestoni, Farrah Caldwell and Emily Parker, just rebounders and the foul trouble kind of sandbagged them in terms of what they could do and limiting our lineup,” Llantero said.
The Wildcats lost in heartbreaking fashion as the Panthers closed the game out 44-34. Still, Llanterto finds some positivity in the loss.
“Considering how close the game was and kind of the peaks and valleys of the game, I mean, I’m excited for the next chance to play them. We play them in a couple of weeks,” Llantero said. “An opportunity may be missed, but we get them again. The basketball gods give us another shot at them, that’s great, let’s take advantage of that opportunity, let’s learn from this one, and let’s take advantage of the next one.”
Unfortunately, the same fate met the boys varsity team. The boys game tipped off at 7:45 p.m. with the Panthers coming in at a 2-3 league record and the Wildcats at a 1-3 league record.
The Wildcats immediately found themselves in a hole, as the offense struggled to get things started and the Panthers were able to punish inside to jump out to a 12-3 lead.
“One thing to take away from this is to start the game a little bit better. Burlingame came with a different mindset that we didn’t quite match,” boys varsity coach Ramon Meacham said. “Next game just coming out a little stronger, just so we don’t have to do so much work to get back into the game.”
The second quarter really woke up the Wildcats, outscoring the Panthers 13-6 as the offense woke up from both a 3-point shooting and interior scoring perspective.
“I think Luke Grech came up pretty clutch for us. He made some big shots,” Meacham said. “He’s somebody who we bring off the bench to bring us some leadership and spark some scoring. I think he did really well tonight.”
The Panthers wouldn’t give up though, an aggressive offensive push made the score 37-31 at the end of the third quarter in Burlingame’s favor.
“Thinking back to the start of the game, going down like twelve to one to start the game is pretty tough and deflating,” Meacham said. “And I think it made us kind of tired down the stretch, when we needed to make layups or free throws down the stretch to cut the lead down.”
The fourth quarter, despite Woodside’s fabulous efforts, would go in Burlingame’s favor. The shots weren’t falling, bad foul trouble and tiredness let the game slip away. The Panthers would win 53-45.
“I just want to shout out the team. We could have easily folded, we could have easily seen the first quarter, seen that two of our best players got in foul trouble, and just quit,” Meacham said. “[I want to] shout out the whole team. The bench stayed in it, the guys that came in stayed in it, and we stayed together more than what we did in past games. So I like to shout out my whole team for standing there and still battling, battling back in that game.”
