January 13, 2010
By Chhun Sun
Not again.
That’s what many of the Turlock Christian High girls basketball players, coaches and supporters were thinking when they witnessed Marly Burton fall to the floor of the Calvary Baptist Gym on Monday night during the Eagles’ rivalry game against Denair High. They couldn’t afford to lose another key contributor after receiving news a few days earlier that Halie Bergman — and her 24-point average — was unavailable for the remainder of the season due to a torn ACL.
Nonetheless, the Eagles fought on.
They left their own gym with a 61-18 win, improving Turlock Christian’s overall record to 13-3 and 4-0 in the Southern League.
Denair dropped to 5-11 overall, and 1-3 in the league.
For the people who watched Burton — a 6-foot-2 sophomore who’s an undeniable inside presence — jam her knee in a collision in the first half, it was scary, considering what happened to Bergman only a week earlier. But coach Edwin Santiago said after the game that the injury is believed to be a hyper-extension of the knee, meaning Burton will likely return before the season ends.
“We’re praying for good luck now,” Santiago said. He was referring to his team’s streak of losing key players. Then again, the Eagles have proven that they still have some talent, enough to blow out teams.
The 43-point landslide over Denair was the second big victory the Eagles produced since losing Bergman. Last Thursday, they blew out Mariposa by 21 points.
And on Monday, the Eagles were once again effective.
Kaisa Spycher had another double-double for Turlock Christian, finishing with 15 points and 19 rebounds, as Amy Wright (13 points) and Natalie Snyder (13 points, nine from behind the 3-point line) finished with double-digit performances. The Eagles pounded out a 21-7 second quarter to build a big enough lead — they were up 31-9 at halftime — for their fourth straight win, three of them in league play.
“We’re not trying to beat them by a big margin, but we’re not going to take a quarter and not play basketball,” Santiago said. “I tell the girls, ‘We’re going to play 100 percent to the end of the game.’ And that means playing tough defense and approaching our offensive sets and trying to score. We’re not here to take it easy on anybody.
“We play hard.”
The Eagles also put up a strong-defensive effort, limiting the Coyotes from double-digit scoring. Denair’s Annissa Turpin finished with eight points, and Madison Norquist had the second-best scoring effort with four.
It was a nice all-around showing from a team that is still adjusting to life without Bergman, an explosive freshman who’s capable of taking over a game. The Eagles still have goals of reaching the Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
“I think we’re all picking it up a lot and raising the intensity,” TC guard Candice Balswick said. “We’re going to keep trying and working hard.”
To contact Chhun Sun, e-mail csun@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2041.
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mwsilver says:
January 15, 2010 - 12:55 PM
I find the quote, "We're not trying to beat them by a big margin" quite amusing. There is a growing division among high school coaches - one philosophy is you press early and you press to take advantage; the other is to press the entire game (and basically run up the score). Concerning the latter, you have to wonder whether this is an indicator of a coach who is in it for their own egotistical satisfaction or to teach kids good sportsmanship. I'm not sure what is happening to high school sports in Turlock (yes, see the score of the Turlock v Los Banos girls game). There is talent galore in Turlock and a win is a win - whether you win by 2, 20 or 60. If we aren't teaching the players something more about the sport than winning, by all means cut sports from the budget. At half time if the team is up by 20, 30 or 40 - why press? Maybe someone should write an article on that instead of treating these coaches as if they are superstars.
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softballover says:
January 16, 2010 - 01:56 AM
i'm around sports alot. baseball softball volleyball and basketball never in my life have i've heard a team that has a goal to blow out a team and gt to 100 points. i heard it the other night when talking with an old friend whose is close to tc. she told me that the tc girls have a goal to reach 100 points every game. in the sports world its understandable that you have a goal of maybe 30 or so but once you get higher then the MOST sportsmanship type coaches stop and tell there players to slow every thing down and have loose D and slow pace O. hearing this so called great game against denair is outrageous someone needs to teach the definition of sportsmenship to this coach its one thing to win by alot with out pressing and going fast on O after about 20. but pressing into the 4th this coach is heartless and is teaching the girls nothing but how to be selfish and nonsportsmenship like. also i agree with the person above me why give praise to a coach who flat out murdered a team by pressing into the 4th. may e your rivalry is huge but thats to much. and if what the paper says is correct they did it with out there 2 best. i give props to the team who was murdered for staying in the game why dont we hear more about underdogs of leagues. remembering high school i didnt want to be reminded how great people or teams were i wanted to for once see my schools name in the paper. it seems the sports section is getting dry if all they can talk about is how great tc is lets hear about denair, delhi and waterford why are those teams never interviewed or have pictures in the paper?
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TimZ says:
January 16, 2010 - 05:55 PM
"softballover says: i heard it the other night when talking with an old friend whose is close to tc. she told me that the tc girls have a goal to reach 100 points every game." Ouch to the grammer in that sentence. I am sure that I am closer to the TC team then "your friend" and 100 points a game is not a goal of the Lady Eagles. Come watch a game and make a judgement, don't base it on a heard say. The coach plays every one a lot and show about as much mercy as possible. If the TC coach had wanted the girls to score 100 points they could have done it a number of times this season. I assume that if you were coaching a blowout that you would tell your players to not work as hard as possible, throw the ball away as much as possible, and run the shot clock out in order to make the other team feel good about themselves. That's the mind set of the 80s.
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mwsilver says:
January 31, 2010 - 02:45 PM
Unfortunately for TimZ he missed the point of the original thread when it seems he took personal offense to what is now a widespread rumor about TC and their season goal. The point of the conversation is: is it right to press when you are ahead by 30-40 points? Nobody's saying you let up. But there is a difference between pressing when it's clear you will win and playing hard. I'd rather hear what you and others have to say about using the press through all 4 quarters when it is clear you will win than any personal attacks. This conversation shouldn't just be about TC.
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