During its annual breast cancer awareness game on Friday night, the Santa Clara girls’ varsity basketball team tested their unbeaten record against the Lynbrook Vikings, winning 41-31.

As acknowledged by head coach Deedee Kiyota, Santa Clara started the game off poorly, turning the ball over and missing multiple free throws.

“Our free throw percentage was really bad today, so we will obviously look to improve that for the next game,” Kiyota said.

After a sluggish first half, SCHS clamped down on the defensive end by playing full court press, suffocating the Lybrook passing lanes and forcing turnovers that led to easy fast break points.

It seemed that the energy from the marching band and spirit squad’s first basketball game appearance invigorated the Bruins with every point scored.

Further into the third quarter, Lynbrook began cutting down Santa Clara’s lead. SCHS answered Lynbrook’s surging offense with equally good defense. SCHS was able to capitalize on Lynbrook’s missed field goals and had a comfortable lead going into the final eight minutes.

“We started off well [in the second half] and played much better, that helped our overall performance to get the win,” Kiyota said.

Led by sophomore Kayleigh Watanabe with a team-high 12 points, SCHS ran away with the win, finishing off Lynbrook 41-31.

Kiyota was frustrated with the second quarter defense and was determined to make some changes for the next game.

“The game got away from us [in the second quarter], so I definitely think that we need to work on our defense,” Kiyota said.

Santa Clara will take their undefeated record on the road to Milpitas next week; however, Kiyota doesn’t want to change the mentality or intensity of her team.
“I don’t think you stay complacent, we’ve talked about going 13-0 and 14-0,” Kiyota said. “We have our goals written on the board ‒ we follow those at all costs.”