GILROY — Cydney Caradonna’s mint green shoes flashed from one side of the court to other all night. Christopher’s senior point guard ran the floor, establishing herself as next-level basketball player.
Caradonna led all scorers with 19 points in the Cougars 52-38 win over San Benito at home Tuesday. She also grabbed three rebounds and four steals in the game.
The win snapped a five-game skid, but more importantly helped Christopher rebound from its loss to North Salinas that kicked off league play on Jan. 7.
“That Gilroy-Hollister city rivalry is always a big deal,” Caradonna said. “Coming into today’s game we just came off a really tough, emotional loss to North Salinas so everyone came out hungry including me. All of us today were like ‘Let’s get Hollister. Let’s get Hollister’ all day at school. We just wanted this one bad.”
The Cougars started off with an eight-point run — in addition to two steals — that kept the Balers out of scoring position. But San Benito didn’t back down and kept things close to trail 19-10 after the first. Cassandra Barraza and Callee Heen kept the pressure on for San Benito each scoring 11 points in the game.
“We knew that they were going to come out hungry as well,” Caradonna said. “There’s always that minute where you’re afraid that they’re going to come out and hit you in the jaw first. I knew my team better than that. I knew that if we were going to get hit, we were going to swing back.”
Trailing 35-20 at the half, San Benito came out and outscored the home team in the third 8-5. Christopher sent San Benito to the line three times in that quarter, but the Balers were only able to generate two points from those opportunities.
“You know our girls play so hard, but then they don’t really get rewarded,” San Benito coach Mitch Burley said. “It’s just that they miss the layup or the free throw doesn’t go in or they travel right before they make a nice play. …That’s kind of been our season. We’re just not getting enough shots, too many turnovers, but as a coach I always like the effort. They play hard, it’s just unfortunate.”
Three Cougars starters were benched in the third due to foul trouble and the team was only able to generate two field goals because of that. The final frame, however, was a different story. The Cougars found their spark once again due in part to Caradonna.
“She’s always that high intensity player,” Cougars coach Heather Stewart said. “We use the intensity that she has and we rally around that. When she sets us up in our offense, when she controls the tempo of the game, we’re a better team.”
Dejah Raoof capped off Cougars’ scoring with eight of her 17 points. She also had four rebounds and a steal. Christa Arroyo and Khaya Price both added seven points in the game.
Moving forward, Burley said the Balers need to limit turnovers and make shots in order to be successful. San Benito (2-12, 0-3) will look to do that when it hosts Seaside at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Christopher (6-7, 1-1) will look to correct its mistakes and avenge last season’s loss to Notre Dame at 7 p.m. Thursday at home.
“We put teams in double-bonus every single game,” Stewart said. “It’s usually 10, 11, 12 fouls to three or four. That means, offensively, we have to have a little bit more intensity in attacking and we need to be smarter defensively.”
There’s always that minute where you’re afraid that they’re going to come out and hit you in the jaw first. I knew my team better than that. I knew that if we were going to get hit, we were going to swing back.”
