Balanced Scoring and Tenacious Defense Lead Cate Girls Basketball

January 7, 2024

Cate Rams Dominate with 20-point First Quarter

Riley Pan ’24 and Lilli Whelan ’25

Despite a scoreless first few minutes on Friday (12/8), the Rams got hot offensively after initiating a full-court press that led to a 20-point first quarter! Cate got balanced scoring from Sania Edwards ’25, Sam Jimenez ’25, Sophia Ospina ’25, and Ada Hansen ’24 to take a 20 to 10 lead after the first 8 minutes.

The Rams continued to push ahead with crucial outside shooting from Jimenez and strong drives to the basket from Hansen, who had a beautiful “and one” in the second quarter that put Cate up at half 34-16.

Sam Jimenez ’25

Cate was the stronger team; however, our aggressive defense led to too many fouls. In fact, Coastal Christian scored all but 6 of its first-half points at the free-throw line. This trend continued in the third quarter, in which 6 of their 11 points came from the stripe. While outscored in the quarter, key rebounding from Emerson Evans ’26 and Edwards and significant scoring contributions from Lilli Whelan ’24, Jimenez, and Ospina gave Cate a 42-27 lead going into the fourth.

In the final quarter, Ospina contributed 3 of her 18 points on the night, while the Rams kept the Conquerors to just 5 in the last 8 minutes.

Our tenacious defense was critical tonight. We caused turnovers that led to offense, and we had balanced scoring among starters, with Ospina contributing 18, Jimenez 13, Hansen 7, and Edwards 5. Evans was key tonight in both her rebounding and defense. This was a great team win, and we are excited to build on this success this coming Tuesday (12/12) night when we play Thacher at 5:30 pm at home.