A showdown between two contenders for the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division saw the Mountain View girls basketball team emerge victorious 55-50 thanks to its aggressive defense and sharp shooting from guard Alana Hernandez.
Santa Clara (11-4) remains one of the favorites to contend for the league, along with Milpitas, but the Spartans are now rolling with a 3-0 record in league play and are 12-3 overall, with a game against Milpitas Friday after the Town Crier print deadline.
“We felt like this was a huge week for us, and it’s not like we felt we couldn’t play with them; we just felt like we had to be almost perfect to win the game,” Mountain View head coach Xavier Cook said.
The Spartans ended last season with a second-to-last finish in the league at 4-8 and 9-13 overall but are on the upswing following an impressive home showing against one of the toughest opponents in the division. Mountain View went on an 8-0 run in the second quarter down by two and took a 32-26 lead into half that it never relinquished. The Spartans relied on Hernandez to maintain the advantage, with the junior guard finishing with a team-high 20 points.
“I definitely think this game has proven to all of us and our coaches and the rest of the league that we came to win this whole thing,” Hernandez said.
Despite some of her early shots not dropping, Hernandez, the team’s best three-point shooter, got involved by driving and passing before heating up in the second and third quarters. She finished with nine of the team’s 11 points in the third quarter to help maintain Mountain View’s 43-38 lead.
“I really take advantage of practice time to work on my game because I love the game, and I love to play, and I love to play with these girls who inspire me a lot,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez is building off her play from last year and is part of a team shooting better overall this year, according to Cook. Guard Mikayla Kim finished with 11 points, while Jillian Higa and Ellie Westgate got eight.
“She’s having a good season, and she is our best three-point shooter,” Cook said of Hernandez. “She has the green light to shoot when she’s open. I think she had a lot of good looks tonight.”
Cook has conditioned the team to play aggressive and swarming defense as the foundation for getting turnovers and controlling the tempo. It also allows Mountain View to tire out opposing players, with the Spartans pressing throughout the game to get the ball out of Santa Clara point guard Nina Llamas’ hands.
“I think that might have been the biggest reason we won down the stretch because I think we wore five down; you could see she was starting to get a lot more tired towards the end,” Cook said.
The defense’s strength in depth of 10 players also allows the team to maintain a quick pace. Mountain View forced 15 total turnovers, with seven in the second half.
“He always tells us whenever they catch the ball to get up in their space, get up in their business because we don’t want to give them space, we don’t want to give them a chance to score, we don’t even want to give them a chance to pass the ball,” Hernandez said.
Santa Clara’s Mialani Talalele, a junior, scored 22 points for the Bruins to lead all scorers and was a force on the inside.
“We knew 21 was going to get her points, but we said if we can keep it out of five’s hands, it will be hard for them to get the ball to 21,” Cook said of Talalele.
While the Spartans don’t have the height of other teams, Cook was pleased with how well the team competed to get rebounds for extra possessions. He praised Higa for her offensive rebounding that led to several second-chance opportunities in the fourth quarter that resulted in points.
“I think we learned that we are a little bit tougher than what we think we are. I think we did a lot better job rebounding tonight,” Cook said.
