Priory girls edge Pinewood again to complete series sweep

PORTOLA VALLEY — Talk about a milestone win for the Priory girls basketball program.

Priory hung on for a 42-40 win Friday over Pinewood to sweep the season series and all but clinch the West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division title, ending Pinewood’s 12-year run as division champion.

“A milestone for our program,” Priory coach Buck Matthews said. “When I came in 12 years ago we were in the lower division, the Skyline Division. To see 12 years later where we’re at the top of the league, it says a lot about our admin, about our school, investing in girls basketball and providing the resources.

“And more importantly the girls, seniors Adelaide Chan, Jordyn Moss and Ugreat Daniels. They are the cornerstone of our program, the big three.”

The win on Friday, like the previous victory over Pinewood, 40-39 on Jan. 16, was by the barest of margins.

In the first meeting Daniels made two free throws in the final seconds to pull out the win. This time Pinewood had the ball down by two points and a 3-pointer to win by Alexandra Tseng rimmed out. Abigail Yew, Pinewood’s 5-2 point guard, came up with the carom and put up a follow shot that went in as the buzzer sounded. But the basket was immediately waved off.

Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler, after viewing the video, said the referee made the right call.

“I’m proud of the girls,” Scheppler said. “When you play high school sports, this is why you work your ass off in the preseason, the offseason. It’s why you get shots up, why you lift, why you train, why you work on your skills. Win or lose, it was a tough loss, lost the league championship as a result of that. But I can’t fault the shots we got.”

“We were lucky,” Matthews said. “They had wide-open looks that in years past they would drill and make my life a nightmare.”

Priory (16-5, 7-0) had a six-point lead at halftime and extended it to nine at 32-23 before Pinewood went on a 7-0 run to close the third quarter. Priory maintained its lead the rest of the way, parrying every jab that Pinewood threw.

Gabby Wickham scored 16 points for Priory and Sasha Jiohnson had 14. Moss pulled down eight rebounds and Daniels six.

Yew led Pinewood (18-3, 6-2) with 10 points. Caitlyn Kramer scored 8 and Andri Wilkinson 7.