The Carlmont JV girls basketball team faced a tough challenge on the road against the Menlo-Atherton Bears, falling 40-21 on Friday, Jan. 31. Despite the loss, the game served as a learning experience as the Scots continue to push through the final stretch of the season.
The Bears established control early, taking a 12-3 lead by the end of the first quarter. Carlmont fought back in the second, led by freshmen Saaz Ghate and Sofie Budman, but M-A’s offense remained steady. At halftime, the Scots trailed 26-13, struggling to keep up with the Bears’ balanced attack.
“We just need to believe in ourselves,” said sophomore Amber Lee. “We can play so much better than how we’re doing.”
One of Carlmont’s main focuses heading into the game was containing M-A’s Mary Dolan, a dominant post player from last season. The Scots prepared all week to shut her down, and while their defensive strategy initially held, she eventually found her rhythm, finishing with 14 points.
“We had a strategy to defend against Dolan because we knew she liked to post up. It worked for a bit, but then she started getting easy baskets,” Ghate said. “At first, we were able to double-team and contain her when she got close to the basket, but then she started scoring easily despite our defense.”
Adding to the Scots’ struggles was an unexpected scoring surge from Alexa Djafari, who also put up 14 points for the Bears.
“Djafari started shooting really well, which was kind of a surprise for us,” Ghate said.
Carlmont, already missing several players due to illness and injury, had to play the game with one substitute, making it difficult to maintain their energy throughout all four quarters.
“It’s hard to run an entire game with no subs, and a ton of our players who’ve been here are sick, so I think that impacted us a little bit,” Lee said. “We should have been able to do so much better just on our own.”
The Scots struggled to find their offensive rhythm in the second half, managing just eight points after halftime. M-A capitalized on their fatigue, extending their lead to 36-14 by the end of the third quarter and cruising to victory in the fourth.
Next up, Carlmont will face Aragon, a team they narrowly lost to 34-30 in their previous matchup. Aragon is 4-5 in league play, while Carlmont is 2-5. The Scots will look to even the ranking and climb the standings.
With four games left in the season, head coach Tye Tolentino hopes to see his team finish strong once they return to full health.
“Hopefully we will get some girls back from illness and injury, and we can finish strong for the last four games of the season,” Tolentino said.
