Soquel knocks off Falcons in CCS semi-finals

After a very successful season for the girls’ basketball team, the team found itself with the No. 2 seed in the Division III CCS playoffs. They were able to easily handle Gunderson in the quarterfinals, winning with a score of 50-27 on March 1 but were unable to make it past the Soquel Knights in the CCS semi-finals, losing 56-44 on March 5.

The Falcons were able to play well defensively against the length and best post player of the Knights, but according to senior forward Dharini Ramaswami, the girls were unable to get back on defense and stop Soquel from scoring points in transition. Ramaswamy also said that the Falcons committed too many turnovers, problems that didn’t help them considering that their shooting wasn’t on par to what it usually was.

According to coach Mike Davey, Soquel had plays that were unexpected and quick. Saratoga had one of its worst shooting performances and they missed shots they would usually have been able to put away.

“Senior Dharini Ramaswamy and junior Mikayla Davis did a great job in our last game with 19 and 11 points respectively,” Davey said. “We ended up losing because Soquel is a great shooting team and they were good at sinking free throws late in game to win it all.”

The team ended the season with a 45 point per game average, and Ramaswamy ended with a 19.4 points per game average, the highest of the team. Second to best was Davis with an eight point average and the highest rebound average with 7.5 per game.

Davey said that next year will be more difficult as the team is transitioning into an upper league. 

“Next year is going to be tough  because of the A league, the strongest public school league in CCS, but the way the teamwork is right now, I’m hoping we will manage,” Davey said.

Davey did however, acknowledge that losing the seniors, especially Ramaswami will be a challenge.

“As you can see losing Dharini will hurt us a lot,” Davey said. “This team is one of the closest units I've ever had. It will be hard to see the seniors go.”

Overall, even though the girls weren’t able to make it past the semi-finals, Ramaswamy thought the team gave a good effort this season and played hard.

“One thing I can take away from this season is that every game is a new game, and you should treat it like you’re the underdog,” Ramaswamy said. “We took every game one at a time and played hard.”