The girls basketball team rolled to a 70-48 home victory against the Cupertino Pioneers in the CCS quarterfinals. Senior shooting guard Luisa Tava led the charge by sinking nine three-pointers, setting a new M-A girls basketball record for the most in a single game, and finishing with a dominant 27 points.
The Bears won the opening tip and immediately got on the board with a quick layup from sophomore center Mary Tava. Although Cupertino fired back with a midrange jumper to tie the game 2-2, L. Tava answered by swishing her first three-pointer of the night to give M-A an early 5-2 lead.
After a brief back-and-forth which tied the game at 10-10, senior center Apé Ulukivaiola hit a crucial heavily-contested field goal to spark a 9-0 scoring run for M-A. Defense stayed strong too—after a steal late in the quarter and a pinpoint pass from senior point guard Molly Gray, freshman small forward Bella Gormsen swished a three as time expired to extend the Bears’ lead to 17-10 and finish out the first quarter.
M-A continued to pull away in the second quarter, led by strong ball control at the top of the key by Gray. The Pioneers held their own for only a few minutes, capitalizing on turnovers by the Bears to narrow the gap to 19-14. However, they were unable to prevent a series of threes by L. Tava, which put the Bears up 31-22 going into halftime.
“Usually, when I start hitting threes, I really don’t think about it. I just shoot,” L. Tava said. “I have a lot of confidence in my shot. I practice a lot outside of practice itself.”
M-A controlled the pace of the game going into the second half, routinely maintaining possession for the full shot clock before taking a shot.
After another brief set of turnovers, the Bears pulled away for good partway through the third quarter. L. Tava took over, hitting five three-pointers to extend M-A’s lead to a commanding 67-40. The Bears led the rest of the way, cementing a final score of 70-48.
“The team we just played against runs a two-three zone. We have this play called ‘bear,’ where we just swing it around the perimeter, so I’m bound to get an open shot,” L. Tava added.
Looking ahead to the next round of gameplay, Gormsen was largely positive. “We shot the ball pretty well today. It was our best shooting game, and we just need to keep playing as a team,” she said. “We definitely need to get rebounds next game, though. That was something we kind of struggled with.”
The Bears will face Los Gatos in the CCS Championships at Santa Clara High School on Saturday at 5 p.m.
*Gracie Bullard is a journalist for the M-A Chronicle.
