The Piedmont High School girls basketball team saw its season end on March 5 when the Central East-Fresno Bengals held on for a 51-49 win at Binks Gymnasium in the second round of the California Interscholastic Federation Division 1 playoffs.
The Highlanders finished their season at 22-5. Central East (20-10) advanced to the Northern regional semifinal on March 7 where they will host St. Francis-Mountain View.
Piedmont opened up the game on a 19-4 run in the first quarter. Andrea Martin scored 11 of her game-high 22 points in the period.
The lead was still 21-10 in the second quarter when things fell apart for the Highlanders. The Bengals opened up a 20-1 run that spread into the third quarter. Piedmont was one for 11 from the floor in the second quarter.
“It was the second quarter,” Martin said. “We kind of fell asleep going zone, that probably wasn’t our best option to do.”
Said Alexa Ba, “We lost the momentum on offense. If we were getting shots up, we weren’t making them. Then on the other end, they were scoring. I think if we were able to make more shots or have better shot decisions, it would have ended up differently.”
Coach Bryan Gardere agreed. “The second quarter was a tough quarter for us,” he said. “We started strong, we thought if we got a good start that would really help us. I didn’t think it would be 24-3 in the second. That was obviously the difference in the game. Give them credit, they did a really good job, they’re a good program.”
Late in the third quarter, Central East took its biggest lead at 41-31. The Highlanders rallied back to make it 43-41 in the fourth quarter but the Bengals scored the next eight points to go back up 10.
In the final two minutes, Piedmont was able to force multiple turnovers and crept back into the game. Martin scored off a pass from Jenelle Solis to cut it to 51-49 in the final minute. Another turnover by Central East led to a foul in the paint, giving the Highlanders an inbounds play underneath the Bengals basket.
With 14.1 seconds left, Taylor White threw the inbounds pass to Martin, but the two weren’t on the same page as Martin broke away from the pass. Chyna Roland intercepted the ball.
“That’s our play called, ‘Line,’” Martin said. “A little guard is supposed to set a screen on a big so that it’s a mismatch and Taylor throws it in to me, I get it and I go up for a layup. Unfortunately, she threw it behind me.”
Said Gardere, “She was open. That was a tough play.”
Piedmont hadn’t committed a foul in the fourth quarter to that point and wasn’t able to get the ball back.
“We were doing a good job getting buckets on our end after we ended the run,” Ba said. “But we weren’t getting stops on defense and I think that’s what got to us. In the end, we fought really hard and that showed us a lot about how we can compete next season.”
Central East coach Chris Maxey never panicked in the early going, holding onto his timeouts.
“I told the girls, ‘Relax. Let’s play our game. We’re making some good plays but we’re not finishing the plays,’” he said. “In the second half, we finished. “Also, they don’t have a lot of depth.” The Highlanders played seven.
He added that he told his players, “They gave us their all. They started hot, let’s just calm down, let’s wear them down, let’s keep playing.”
The Bengals had been dealing with a flu bug, with two players having to run off the court and throw up in trash cans during the game.
“We had at least three girls who have been sick,” Maxey said. “It has been tough. We tell our girls, ‘It’s all or nothing, let’s battle to the end.’”
Sanai Herod and Chyna Roland led Central East with 14 points apiece. Savana Chase, one of the players who got sick, had just four points but pulled down 11 rebounds. Zyraeis Murphy had 10 rebounds and six points.
Rebounding had been a problem for Piedmont in some playoff games but the Bengals only had a 42-37 advantage.
Martin also had eight rebounds. Ba finished with 13 points. Saniyah Johnson had four points and seven rebounds. White pulled down 11 rebounds to go along with four points. Solis had seven assists and three points.
“I’m happy and proud of the girls,” Gardere said. “Drea’s effort, diving on the floor everywhere. Finishing. Jaden hitting a big three. Jenelle handling that double-team the whole night. Lex made us some big plays. I thought everybody did a good job, they had their moments. Just needed a little bit more time on the clock.”