Piedmont holds on in big win
The Piedmont High School girls basketball team pulled out a 51-47 win over visiting Bishop O’Dowd on Jan. 13 at Binks Gymnasium. The Highlanders got the lead early and held on down the stretch to win their opening game of the West Alameda County Conference Foothill Division season.
It was an agonizing final couple of minutes as the scoreboard appeared stuck on 49-47 for several minutes. One team would miss a shot, the other would turn the ball over, repeat, repeat, repeat.
“It was stuck a long time,” Piedmont coach Bryan Gardere said. “We had a lot of turnovers today. I do like that we didn’t panic too much, where we give it all up.
“I was proud of the girls for the effort. It has been really challenging for the last two weeks or so.”
Gardere said point guard Jenelle Solis sprained her foot, star forward Andrea Martin had a sprained ankle and Taylor White had hip and back problems after falls in a Christmas tournament.
“We were really banged up,” he said. “We just haven’t had a lot of court time. You could tell, we looked really tired. But the heart was there, the competitiveness was there.”
Andrea Martin watches her shot in the second half in the middle of traffic. Martin scored 18 points to help lead the Highlanders to a win over Bishop O’Dowd. 
Savannah Dennig (21) makes a pass over Bishop O’Dowd’s Ella Bibbins (14). The Highlanders held on for a 51-47 win. 
Taylor White (2) tries to get around Bishop O’Dowd’s Tenaya Aguilera (1). White finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. 
Alexa Ba (30) brings the ball up against Bishop O’Dowd in a January 13 game at Binks Gymnasium.
Martin had a tough shooting night (seven of 18 from the field) but still led the Highlanders with 18 points and seven rebounds. White had 15 points and 14 rebounds while Savannah Dennig had 15 points and six rebounds.
“We just stayed composed and stayed together,” Martin said. “Even though they were hitting threes or we were getting turnovers, we just stayed together and were playing hard and we didn’t give up. Our word for today was toughness.”
Martin’s biggest points were a pair of free throws in the final minute that finally broke the 49-47 cycle.
“We did a really good job picking each other up,” Dennig said. “We were up, they made a three. And then they had another shot. We were still, ‘It’s OK. We’re winning, we’re going to win this game. Don’t fall behind.’”
Said Dragons coach Malik McCord, “We had about four or five opportunities, but the ball wasn’t going in the basket for us tonight. We just dug ourselves a hole in the first half. Even though we were only down seven, we just were not playing well. I felt we woke up in the middle of the third quarter, but it too long for us to wake up.”
McCord said this year’s team is one of the best shooting teams he has had at Bishop O’Dowd. The Dragons shot 19 of 57 (33 percent) in the game. Piedmont was one shot worse at 19 of 58. However, the Highlanders out-rebounded Bishop O’Dowd, 46-32.
The other key statistic was turnovers. As Piedmont built a lead in the first half, they were even. In the second half, the Highlanders committed 14 to just eight for the Dragons.
Piedmont scored the first seven points of the game with Jayla Stokes finally scoring for Bishop O’Dowd with three minutes, 59 seconds to go in the first quarter. It was 30-23 at halftime and an early third quarter run by the Highlanders put them up 13.
But the Dragons, as one would expect, rallied. As Dennig said, they never got the lead, though.
Tenaya Aguilera came off the bench to score 12 points for Bishop O’Dowd. Stokes scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.