Girls’ Division II Basketball Regionals : Hot Woodbridge Cools Quickly, Loses, 51-35

The Woodbridge High School girls’ basketball team came out running and pressing in its first-round Southern California Regional Division II playoff game here Tuesday night.

Woodbridge scored the first seven points of the game and held Sanger scoreless for more than four minutes. The Warriors had a five-point lead at the end of the first quarter and appeared to have the game under control.

But then the second quarter started and Woodbridge came out as flat as the countryside surrounding this San Joaquin Valley town and lost, 51-35.

“Yeah, you could say we were flat,” Woodbridge Coach Eric Bangs said. “I looked up (at one point in the first quarter) and it was 11-5. I expected us to have 20 points by then. If we would have had a 10- to 15-point lead, the game would have been ours.”

But the Warriors’ (26-6) shooting went into a deep freeze and Sanger managed to overcome a lack of quickness with a steady, patterned offense.

Sanger (27-6) advances to play at Escondido San Pasqual in the second round Thursday night.

Tuesday night, Woodbridge made just 9 of 48 field-goal attempts. The Warriors had only one basket in both the second and third quarters when the Apaches outscored them, 18-8 and 10-8.

“We knew they were quick and pesky,” Sanger Coach Roy Tanimoto said. “We tried to slow them down.”

Tanimoto said the Apaches were not ready for the Warriors’ quickness in the first quarter.

A layup by Woodbridge forward Kathy Millat gave the Warriors the lead to begin the game. Millat followed that with a three-point play (a basket and a free throw). Moments later, Randee Mahony made a short jumper and the Warriors had a 7-0 lead with 3:49 left in the quarter.

After Cindy Weibert, a junior guard, scored the Apaches’ first basket, Mahony scored on a fast break and it was 9-2.

But then Renee Schneider got hot, Woodbridge went cold and could not recover.

Schneider, who had a game-high 20 points, scored the first two baskets of the second quarter to bring Sanger to within 11-10.

A couple of minutes later, Schneider, a senior center, made two free throws to tie the score at 16-16, then made a short jumper to give Sanger the lead.

Sanger never trailed after that and, though Woodbridge stayed close for the first part of the third quarter, the Apaches never faltered.

“They’re a good team,” Bangs said. “Not a great team, but they have good fundamentals and they take their time.”

Kari Vance was the only other Sanger player in double figures. Vance, a senior forward, had 12 points. Reserve forward Joann Lowe scored only five points--all in the second quarter--but her hustle sparked the Apaches.

Mahony had 17 points and Millat 11 for Woodbridge.

“It wasn’t the normal Woodbridge team,” Bangs said. “I don’t know if it was the travel or what. It’s extremely frustrating.”