Imbued with love for the game, Paly’s girls’ basketball team guaranteed a first-place league berth when the Vikes faced off against Santa Clara on Valentine’s Day to handily beat the Bruins, 55-37.

Santa Clara (9-17, 2-9 league) previously lost a home game to the Vikes, 20-51, on Jan. 24. The Bruins are tied with Homestead for last place in league.

Although the win clinched the Vikes’ first-place standing in the De Anza league, Friday’s 6:15 p.m. quad night home game against Wilcox is the game everyone is most anticipating — and not just because it’s Senior Night.

"By winning tonight, we’re guranteed to get a share of the championship," head Paly coach Scott Peters said.

Against Santa Clara, the Vikes experienced a slow first quarter with no more than a single goal for each scoring player, while the Bruins relied on star Oanh Phan to score most of their points from a field goal, a three-point shot and two free throws. With 8.7 seconds remaining, senior guard/forward Megan Grant scored a field goal and brought the score to 8-9 with the Vikes trailing.

"I don’t think we came out with as much energy as we should have, or as much energy as we would like to have against Wilcox," Paly senior guard Melody Gaal said. "We still did okay, but our defense was kind of lax."

Paly came into the second quarter with much greater vigor, holding the Bruins to seven points while scoring 17 of their own to end the half with the home team into the lead, 25-16. The third quarter went similarly well for Paly, Santa Clara scored 15 points in the third quarter in response to Paly’s 17, but were too far behind to present a real threat.

The Vikes dominated in the final period again with 13 points in comparison to Santa Clara’s game-low of six, which matched the number of points made in that corner by Gaal, who led the Vikings with 12 points.

Throughout the game, the Lady Vikes depended mainly on quick, clever plays and teamwork to complete their points. However, the Vikes were unable to shut down Phan, who averages 15.7 points per game and scored 23 of her team’s 37 points on Tuesday.

For the upcoming game against Wilcox, Paly plans to concentrate on defense, especially guarding dominant players more intensely.

"They [Wilcox] have a girl who’s a very good player. Tonight, Santa Clara has a girl that’s a very good player and we didn’t do a good job of stopping her," assistant Paly coach Dick Held said. "We’re going to be guarding her [the Wilcox player] all the time, even when she doesn’t have the ball."

Both Paly and Wilcox have an overall record of 23-3, although the Vikes are 10-1 in leagues, while the Chargers are 9-2. If Paly comes out on top, the Vikes will be the sole league champions, but if Wicox wins, the teams will share the title.