The Lady Vikes have proven to be anything but out of their depth when it comes to resilience. The last time they played Lynbrook, Paly was green only in uniform, sweating out a win by two points in double overtime. For this round, Paly dug deep again and rolled out a fantastic 9-point victory.
"We did a good job hustling," junior guard/point Melody Gaal said. "We didn’t give up [throughout] the entire game."
In the first quarter, Paly snatched the jump but got hit by a turnover, and Lynbrook scored 35 seconds in. The Vikings retaliated with a twice-rebounded assist by Gaal to junior guard Megan Grant. Gaal cashed in on her assist karma roughly a half-minute later, scoring on a pass from senior forward Dami Wusu.
The somewhat sluggish game came alive about four minutes and two Lynbrook-induced fouls later when junior point Ranecia Fields took a baseline ball to the net for two points, followed up by another goal.
"Ranecia Fields had a whale of a game," parent Vince Barich said. "Grant really stepped up. [Gaal] came in and got a lot of rebounds."
Lynbrook cut Paly’s lead by three points with two free-throw fouls in the final minute of the quarter, but Grant widened the gap to 10-5 with two seconds remaining, thanks to a composed jump shot from the edge of the paint.
The second quarter did not go as well for Paly. Lynbrook senior wing/forward Tiffany Pan, who leads the league three-pointer record with 67 goals, scored two three-pointers roughly within four minutes of each other. Another blue-clad Viking made a classic put back for her teammate’s missed second free throw for a unique kind of co-shot three-point play. Two more free throws later, Lynbrook tied with Paly at 10 points; then Pan sunk her first three-point shot.
"We were focusing on taking away their three-point shots," Gaal said. "They have [Pan] and … we had to stay on her like glue. Everybody [on Lynbrook] could shoot a three, [but] we kept them down to four three-pointers this game. It’s tough to stay with a person the whole time."
That incident seemed to reinvigorate Paly’s fighting spirit. Gaal made a nice rebound, followed by an impressive jump-hook shot from Grant and a smoothly executed give-and-go that let Fields drive to the baseline for a basket, bringing the score to 10-13 in Paly’s favor. Fields later took advantage of a fumbled pass that bounced off the referee’s foot, sprinting from half-court to scoop the ball up and go for a flawless lay-up.
"Paly simply played harder than we did, and that’s tough to swallow," head Lynbrook coach Darrin Garcia said. "Getting outscored, it happens. But getting outworked stings a bit."
Paly’s streak was broken by its eighth foul of the half, resulting in a Lynbrook free throw. Gaal canceled that point by taking a free throw of her own due, to Lynbrook’s fifth foul. Pan nailed her last three-pointer with 38 seconds left and ended the half 19-17 in Paly’s favor.
Tension gripped the court and the stands as the third quarter began. Grant received an assist from Fields and fired off a field goal from near the basket. Gaal contributed to both her overall 11 rebounds and 14 points for the night a minute later, putting the ball in on its third rebound.
Fields continued Paly’s run barely 20 seconds later, knocking the ball from Lynbrook’s hesitant point guard at half-court and executing yet another beautiful lay-up.
Grant was fouled and made one of two free throws with 4:45 remaining in the period. Two free throws and a field goal later, Lynbrook started to catch up, bringing the score to 26-21 until Gaal added a jump shot for Paly, followed by two free throws from sophomore forward/guard Katie Barich. Lynbrook sophomore wing/forward Emily Shen replied with her team’s third three-point goal, soon compounded by two more Lynbrook field goals. But Paly still managed a 2-point lead at the end of the quarter, 30-28.
The home-team Vikes did not suffer fourth-quarter blues in this game. If anything, the girls came out with more fire than before and scored a game-high 20 points, compared with Lynbrook’s 13. Grant, who earned Paly’s Player of the Game Award, contributed nine of those points through two field goals and five free throws. With less than nine seconds remaining, Grant proved once again that padded walls are worth the extra investment after being pushed into the boards.
"I was flagrantly fouled," Grant said good-humouredly. "That was uncomfortable, but I understand. And, you know, that happens in games, so we’ve got to deal with it."
Grant nailed both free throws, absolutely clinching the game for Paly. Gaal was fouled two seconds later and swept her free throws to end the game victoriously, 50-41.
"We had a good team effort tonight," head Paly coach Amy Stock said. "Everybody got in the game. [Grant] was our spark plug tonight; she did a very nice job. It was a good team effort."
"The game went excellently," Grant said. "We did everything better than we did the last couple of games. This is a really big win for us because we lost a few games, and that was starting to get us a little bit down. This game really helped us with our team morale."
Coming off of a tough 36-55 loss to Los Gatos the night before, the varsity Lady Vikes could certainly say that Lady Luck (or at least the patron saint of Los Gatos) had it in for them this season.
Exactly three weeks and three days after Paly lost junior starter guard/point Bre Clay to a torn ACL in a home game against the Wildcats, similar tragedy struck the ill-fated Vikings on Friday.
"I was coming down for a rebound, and I think I landed on another girl’s foot and twisted my ankle,” junior starting guard/forward Amber Jones explained. "So I have a bad ankle sprain. It happened early in the fourth quarter, right after we [the team] were talking about how we needed to come back, and…we lost."
Unappeased, the insatiable vengeance demons struck again on Sunday during practice. Dami Wusu, who has been playing despite a bad knee, finally took time off to heal. With three starters down for an indefinite period, likely for the rest of the season, the remaining seven players are prepared to fill their missing shoes.
"It’ll give us a chance to develop a bench," Gaal noted.
The Vikes are due for a Quad Night rematch against the Trojans at Milpitas on Friday, Feb. 11. JV girls play at 3 p.m., followed by varsity girls at 6 p.m. and varsity boys at 7:30 p.m.