photos by Charlie McDonald (charlie.mcdonald@surewestsports.com)
by Mike Finnerty (mike.finnerty@surewestsports.com)
There are only two teams that may have a shot at ending Del Oro's consecutive win streak in the Sierra Foothill League, and they are SureWest's No. 12 ranked Woodcreek Timberwolves and No. 15 Nevada Union Miners.
Heading into Wednesday's game that had No. 10 Del Oro (12-8, 4-0) on the the road to take on Woodcreek (14-7, 2-2), the consecutive win streak stood at 62. By the end of the night, the streak had improved to 63 after Del Oro's 45-33 wire-to-wire victory in what could best be described as a defensive battle.
"It was one of those hard fought games where the defense kind of controls things," said Del Oro head coach Mike Takayama. "We both know what each other are going to be doing, and every basket was kind of an earned thing."
Del Oro's sensational junior guard Brianna Ruiz (5'11" guard) led the Golden Eagles with 16 points, including 12 in the second half, while center Stephanie Geyer added 11.
The Woodcreek defense held Ruiz in check in the first half, but midway through the third quarter Ruiz took over.
With Del Oro up 24-16 in the third, Ruiz scored 12 of Del Oro's next 18 points, including a straight away three with 4:29 left in regulation, that gave Del Oro its biggest lead of the game at 42-26.
As for Woodcreek, it was tough night for Fia Hoskinson, the terrific senior shooting guard for the Timberwolves. Wearing a clear mask on her face due to a broken nose, Hoskinson appeared bothered by the mask and struggled to find her shot.
Del Oro led from the very beginning and that lead would bring the Timberwolves deficits of 13-6 after the first and 20-12 at the half.
The offensive pace picked up in the third with Del Oro outscoring Woodcreek 17-13 to take a 37-25 lead to the fourth.
Kayla Gardner (10 points) and Samantha Gonzalez (9 points) played well offensively for Woodcreek and they played a big part in cutting the Del Oro lead to six at 27-21 with 3:15 left in the third, but that would be as close as Woodcreek would get.
"They (Woodcreek) didn't shoot the ball as well as they normally do in the first half," said Takayama. "In the second half we got to running more of our sets. Bri (Brianna Ruiz) got involved a little bit more and we were able to get a little bit of separation at that point."
With that, the win streak remains, but more importantly for Del Oro they remain in a tie for first place with Nevada Union (10-10, 4-0 in league). Both teams will square of Friday at Del Oro.
Takayama sees the bigger picture for his Golden Eagles who look to gain some momentum before heading to the playoffs in late February.
"Hopefully we can just keep building. We're still a young team that makes some mistakes, but we're starting to get to where we need to go and hopefully we can win a few more games and make the playoffs."