In their sixth game of the season, the Palo Alto High School girls’ basketball team (2-4) fell to the Lynbrook Vikings (2-2), 25-44, Thursday night at home.
According to Viking head coach Kevin Blunt, the Vikings had a hard time holding off Lynbrook.
“They [Lynbrook] are super physical, and we’re super young, and we don’t understand the physicality of the varsity game yet, and so that was one of the things that I wanted to emphasize,” Blunt said.
Lynbrook assistant coach Kevin Lew said they used film to find the Vikings’ weaknesses.
“We watched a little bit of film on Palo Alto, so we kind of had an idea of who their players were,” Lew said. “In practice, we watch some of our film to see what things we could work on.”
The Lynbrook Vikings started the game off hot, jumping out to a quick 10-4 lead. Lynbrook’s offensive spark was led by senior point guard, Alice Wu, who scored consecutive baskets to end the quarter with a lead of 16-4 over Palo Alto.
Lynbrook continued to control the pace of the game in the second quarter and stifled Palo Alto on defense, going into halftime enjoying a substantial lead, 28-10.
According to Blunt, Lynbrook got such a large lead because of their pressure and ability to dictate the pace of the game.
“Their press worked [well],” Blunt said. “They were dictating the pace of the game too. And so with all those things and the fact that we weren’t being aggressive at all, we lost the game.”
In the third quarter, Lynbrook dominated the boards, grabbing offensive rebounds on multiple possessions in the quarter. Palo Alto improved their scoring from the first half with help from freshman point guard Sophie Li. However, Lynbrook remained ahead by a large margin, leading 40-19 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
Palo Alto tightened up their defense in the final period, only letting up four points to Lynbrook. However, the deficit remained insurmountable for the Vikings, losing 25-44.
According to freshman Palo Alto guard Abagail Neumann, The Vikings needed to maintain better energy during the game.
“Towards the end of the game, we picked it up because we got more energy and wanted it more when we saw that the game was about to end,” Neumann said. “We needed to maintain that mentality throughout the whole game.”
According to Wu, Lynbrook needs to have more patience on offense and work together.
“I think we need to work better as a team and keep making good passes to each other and not rush when we are on offense,” Wu said.
The Vikings will go against the Milpitas Trojans (2-5) 7 p.m. Wednesday at home.
