Atwater High girls basketball can’t overcome injuries in NorCal playoff loss to University
The Atwater High girls basketball postseason run came to an end as top-seeded University High defeated the Falcons 45-37 at Kezar Pavilion on Thursday night in the Northern California Regional Division III quarterfinals.
The Red Devils (26-7) held Atwater to a season low 37 points. The Falcons’ previous low point total was 52 in a loss to Oak Ridge on November 30.
Atwater played most of the game against University without guard Jolie Hart, who injured her ankle three minutes into the game. The Falcons were already without sophomore Madi Hiler, who sprained her MCL against Christian Brothers in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs two weeks ago.
“When Jolie went out it kind of killed us,” said Atwater coach JR Davis, whose team finished the season with a 25-8 record. “She’s one of our main scorers.”
Hart’s injury also forced the Falcons to switch from their full-court zone press to a man-to-man press with some younger players being forced to play more minutes.
Gabriella Kelly led the Red Devils with 14 points and Kate Kennedy added 13 points.
Junior Karissa Hukill paced the Falcons with 13 points.
“When it came down to it we didn’t have enough fire power,” Davis said.
University will host No. 13 Cornerstone Christian on Saturday in the semifinals.
The Falcons’ season comes to an end after a long playoff run that included a trip to the Sac-Joaquin Section semifinals for the first time since 1988 and a fourth consecutive Central California Conference championship.
“It was a great season,” Davis said. “It was better than I expected and the exciting part is the players are all coming back. We got this far with some injuries If we can stay injury free next year we can go on a nice run.”
