Carpinteria’s girls basketball team fell to first-place Santa Paula on Saturday 52-33.
“I thought we played hard,” said Warriors head coach Dan Mercer, whose young team falls to 2-8 in Frontier League play while Santa Paula improves to 9-1.
“The team continues to grow, they haven’t thrown in the towel by any stretch of the imagination. They’re a relentless group knowing their time will come,” Mercer said. “So there’s a lot of bright stuff to look at.”
Carpinteria was playing its fourth-straight game without leading scorer Tori Kelley, who is expected back this week for Carpinteria’s final two games.
Sierra Diaz led the Warriors in scoring for the third time in those four games filling in for Kelley. Diaz recorded a team-high eight points while Maddie Cleek and Macey Frazer added five each.
The Warriors were down 20-12 at half before Santa Paula put the game out of reach in the third quarter.
Carpinteria hosts Malibu on Tuesday for Senior Night before closing out the season on Thursday at Grace Brethren.
