Tehachapi News

Practice makes perfect

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In a demanding schedule that had the Lady Warriors span three tournaments over a two month period, the new-look Tehachapi girls’ basketball team got a sneak peak look at the upcoming season.

Overall, Tehachapi competed in the Bakersfield Summer League, CSUB Open Tourney and Ridgecrest Invitational and ended their summer campaign with 12 wins in 19 games played.

"A lot of girls got a chance to show what they can do and get an early look at their competition (for the upcoming season)," said head coach Mark Bennett. "Preparation is important. There are a lot of tough teams in our area and the more chance you have to get the girls on the same page and working together the better off you'll be when the season starts (in November)."

Mountain Basketball's most impressive stint came in the Ridgecrest Invitational, where they won the overall tournament with a perfect 5-0 record. Tehachapi defeated Apple Valley (42-4), Palmdale (34-24 and 32-21) and Burroughs (40-36 and 52-46) to take the tournament's first place honors.

In the final game against Burroughs, Paige Bennett had 22 points, five rebounds and four steals, Amanda Viselli had 12 points, two blocked shots and two steals, and Rachel Duff had 11 points and six rebounds to lead the way. Other contributors included McKenzie Eberle with five points, seven assists, four rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot, Rheanna Cowee with two points, seven rebounds and a blocked shot, and Danielle Simpson with three rebounds a two blocked shots.

"The girls really did a great job in Ridgecrest," Bennett said. "It was good to get those games under our belts. Especially against Burroughs, they're a tough team and we matched up well against them. The girls responded with two solid wins."

Other players seeing significant playing time in Ridgecrest included Erica Lange, Haley Hall and AJ Snider.

The junior varsity squad also competed in Ridgecrest, taking on Immanuel Christian's varsity team and winning 46-16. Jade Delgadillo led the Lady Braves with 10 points, three assists and three steals, Alyssa Garcia had 17 points and six steals and Rheanna Cowee had a double-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and two steals. Danielle Simpson also had seven points, three assists, two rebounds and three steals and Alexis Schoenberg had four points, three rebounds and three steals.

In other game action, the jayvee also defeated Burroughs' jayvee squad 25-18, with Danielle Simpson recording 10 points and six rebounds and Rheanne Cowee recording a team high 11 rebounds.

Making the move from East Kern County back to Bakersfield, the varsity team recorded more summer wins against Foothill (38-15), North (42-40 and 20-12), Santa Ynez (29-25), West (41-30) and El Diamante (29-8), taking forth place overall in the CSUB Open Tournament.

The timed running-clock games at CSUB gave Tehachapi a 4-1 record and a berth in the tournament's third place game against Bakersfield High. Alyssa Garcia had six points and four rebounds, Amanda Viselli and AJ Snider had five points, and Rachel Duff had six points, four rebounds and a steal in a 46-26 loss to the Drillers.

The momentum from solid tourneys in Ridgecrest and CSUB carried over into their final two games of the summer season, where the Warriors avenged a playoff loss to Frontier-Bakersfield in a lopsided 56-39 win and narrowly lost to Bakersfield powerhouse Stockdale in the summer finale, 48-42.

"The Frontier game was probably our best outing of the summer, the girls really played well," Bennett said. "You could see the growth and development that the girls had all summer long. Every game they got better and better."

Against Frontier, Paige Bennett and Amanda Viselli combined for 40 points, eight assists, nine rebounds, three blocked shots and eight steals in the drubbing. Mackenzie Eberle also had four points, five assists, three rebounds and six steals, while Rachel Dufff, Rheanna Cowee, AJ Snider and Alyssa Garcia had a combined 14 rebounds and three blocked shots.

In the final game of the summer against Stockdale, Viselli had a game-high 20 points and two steals, including two three-pointers, while Paige Bennett had 10 points and six rebounds and Rachel Duff had four points and five rebounds.

"We had a productive summer," said Bennett. "It was a great opportunity to see what the girls could do and it puts us in a great position to hit the ground running when the season begins in a couple of months. This is just the start."