Cate’s girls basketball team gave Carpinteria a run for its money on Saturday night, giving the Warriors a scare on their own court before the home team pulled away late in a 43-34 non-league decision.
“I think part of it was that we were a little over-confident,” said Carpinteria’s leading scorer Caitlin Wallace, who had a game-high 20 points – 15 coming in the second half.
Amanda Burch drives the lane before dropping in a left-handed layup.
The Rams held a lead as late as three minutes into the second half when the score was 24-23. Cate had no problem breaking Carpinteria’s press and threw several different defensive looks at the Warriors to keep them off balance on offense.
“I figured that if we could break their press and if we could stop those two, then we could at least stay in the game,” said Cate’s head coach Tere Linzey.
Cate’s plan went accordingly until mid-way through the third quarter as Carpinteria closed the period on a 9-2 run to take a 32-26 lead.
Despite Cate’s defensive attention, Amanda Burch and Wallace were still able to do their thing, that being providing most of the Warriors’ scoring.
Burch followed Wallace’s 20 points with 15 of her own as the duo accounted for 35 of the Warriors’ 43 points.
Grace Williams led the Rams with 11 points, scoring on multiple post moves in the paint. Eight of Williams’ point total came before Carpinteria took the lead for good in the third quarter.
“I think defense was really the No. 1 thing in this game,” Wallace said. “Their post player (Williams) was a key player for them and shutting her down really helped us a lot.”
Carpinteria's Caitlin Wallace gets her hand on a shot-attempt from Cate's Grace Williams, who led the Rams with 11 points.
Cate’s scoring turned out to be fairly spread out, with Lanea Pearson registering seven points, Katrina VonBurg 6, Gracie Dickman 5 and Simone Nettles 5.
Carpinteria improved to 8-5 in its last game before starting Tri-Valley League play on Tuesday against Malibu. The Warriors have already met the Sharks this season at the Viewpoint Tournament, beating them 41-37.
Cate, which opens Condor League play on Friday at Laguna Blanca, was encouraged by its performance, especially considering that the Rams lost to Malibu by 30 points in their season opener.
“We’re finally coming together as a ballclub and that I think we’ll be a force to be reckoned with,” Linzey said.
