It is the Friday after finals, and most students would likely be out celebrating their hard-earned leisure.
Paly’s basketball teams are still at school for Quad Night, however, and the varsity Lady Vikes have garnered a tenuous two-point lead over visiting team Milpitas, currently third in league.
With less than five seconds left in the first half, Paly junior point Ranecia Fields has not yet reached the half-court line from the backcourt before she pauses to launch a high-riding jumper.
But this is no standard desperation shot. All eyes stay glued to the mango arc as it nears the basket; it’s looking good.
As the gym watches in quasi-disbelief, it’s IN; the buzzer hot on its metaphorical heels.
Junior Karishma Oza, a Paly scorekeeper, practically bounces in her seat as she tries to come up with a apt commemorative.
"I would compare Ranecia’s half-court shot at the buzzer to Stanford’s [former men’s basketball team member] Matt Lottich’s last season," Oza would later say. "It was sweet. It was beautiful. It was gorgeous."
Paly fans jumped up, screaming and punching the sky while fellow teammates mobbed their grinning comrade, who was to take home the Player of the Game goose.
"That was a prayer shot," Fields laughed. "I threw it [the ball] up, just like ‘God, please let it go in, please let it go in,’ and all I hear is pah-chee…aww… it went in. I was so happy."
That three-point goal ended the first half by bringing Paly’s lead to five points, 24-19. Unfortunately for the Vikes, Milpitas flexed some muscles in the last half to make up for their less-than-stellar second quarter, netting a total 31 points to Paly’s 22 for a 46-50 win.
"The game went well, [but] you can’t beat the officials," parent Randy Fields said. "It throws off the momentum when you see a player go down, and everybody in the stands sees it, and it doesn’t get called."
In their triumphant second quarter, the Vikings had gained much-needed momentum with a spectacular nearly eight minute, 16-point run. Twenty seconds into the quarter, Fields was fouled as she shot a successful field goal but did not make the three-point play; not counting that instance, she continued to score four of six free throws and scored seven of her 14 game points in the second quarter alone.
Junior guard/point Melody Gaal contributed with one free throw, a field goal and an assist to senior forward Dami Wusu for the inside shot. Fellow junior guard/forward Amber Jones snagged a handsome outside shot for two points before the Trojans made their one and only field goal of the quarter, which soon ended with Fields’ buzzer-enhanced finale.
While it lasted, quarter three went well for the Vikes. Milpitas scored in the first 15 seconds, but Fields was soon fouled for the seventh time. Although the free throws didn’t go in, Fields sunk a jump shot from her rebounded second attempt to increase Paly’s lead, 26-21. Trojan junior Raquel Lara, who scored the only other three-point-shot of the night, struck back with a field goal that tightened Paly’s lead to three points. The next time down the court, Gaal made a basket of her own and soon after rebounded her own field goal attempt. Gaal kept up her streak, assisting Jones on a skillful 2-on-3 nice offensive play by drawing two defenders with a pump-fake to clear her teammate. Jones, who took the second-highest Viking score with 10 points that game, seized the opportunity to make a tough baseline shot.
With 4:30 remaining in the third, junior Paly guard Megan Grant was fouled as she attempted a rebound and bagged her two free throws, raising the score to 34-25.
"We had them [Milpitas] down, we had them down 9 [points]," assistant Paly coach Dick Held said. "And really, that’s when we needed to stretch. We did not get them mentally out of it. They hung in there, so I compliment them."
Milpitas responded with another basket after about a minute of furious cross-court action and followed up with another goal and a lay-up. Dami Wusu had the last laugh, scoring two points and swatting down a Trojan in mid-shot.
The stands were rife with tension as the fourth quarter began in earnest. Milpitas made the first basket in 6:58, then Grant scored thanks to an assist from ground-bound junior guard Jane Griffin, who had hit the floor with the ball to pick up a second rebound. Within the next minute, the Trojans scored twice, sandwiching Jones’s 6:01 baseline basket.
As the clock dropped to 4:42, Milpitas sunk their second consecutive goal, but 15 seconds later Dami Wusu dropped another basket to regain Paly’s tenuous lead, 42-41.
"In the second half we came out very focused, very determined," head Milpitas coach Joanna Harris said. "The girls were pumped up, they were intense and they felt they could make certain changes, make it happen, come out with the win and that’s sort of the tone that they took into the 3rd quarter so we were able to catch up on the deficit."
Nails on both sides of the gym transformed into bloody stubs during the next four minutes. Lady Trojan Erica Wong was fouled in 3:41 and made one free throw, tying the teams at 42 points. Barely two minutes before the end, Jones netted yet another baseline shot from Gaal’s assist. Ten seconds later, the Trojans answered to tie for 44. Play continued unabated for roughly a minute before Gaal proceeded with a alley-oop that could only be described as sweet, sending Paly to a 46-44 lead.
Only 39 seconds remained when, much to Paly’s chagrin and Milpitas’ delight, Wong once again broke the tie with a fixed goal, advancing her team 46-48.
"You have to foul!" yelled head Paly coach Amy Stock to her team.
Accordingly, Fields thrice went after the Milpitas point in a bizarre game of Trojan-backcourt foul-tag. Gaal then switched with Fields, unavoidably fouling Wong and driving Paly over the limit. Wong shot both free throws smoothly, leaving Paly with 9.7 seconds and a four-point deficit. The Vikes tried to make the most of an impossible situation but failed to turn numerous close attempts into baskets, and the game ended 46-50.
Some thought it ironic that the very physical game ultimately hinged on free throws from fouls called in the Trojans’ favor.
"We were being pummeled," Dami Wusu said." So I think maybe they [the referees] should look both ways."
"In a game like that, a call here, a call there — it makes a difference in the end," parent Vince Barich agreed. "There were some very, very obvious calls they just did not go our way. It’s hard to play uphill against the refs, and it’s the little things like that that make the difference. Our girls played well, they played tough and they played hard, but they were playing 5 on 7."
Grant took a more pragmatic approach.
"It doesn’t matter what I think about the refs," Grant said. "Because in the end, the refs don’t make the game, we make the game; so we can’t blame it on the refs… but we always love the support from our parents and our friends, our parents and our loved ones."
Once more, the girls remain focused on the future.
"We have to overcome these losses," Fields said. "We’re not going to be able to win league but we still need to come together. We’re playing as a team, we just have to keep the fire going. … Even though we lost, I think we played well … I just hope that next time we can shoot stronger, work as a team [and] get those offensive, defensive boards. Like coach Amy Stock says, those boards, put backs, free throws; those win games."
The Vikes went up against Milpitas following a close 48-50 visitors loss to Homestead that Wednesday. On Tuesday, Jan. 25, Paly did beat the downward spiral, crushing league trailer Saratoga 57-28 on its home turf.