River Valley girls hand East Nic first loss

The lead was slowly evaporating. After jumping out to a 10-point advantage on Tuesday night, the River Valley High girls basketball team had one of its few defensive lapses — East Nicolaus ended the first half on a 7-0 run.

Mikayla Rolufs hit a 3-pointer to start the third quarter, dwindling the Falcons' lead to just two points. R.V. coach Tom Zaragoza used a timeout, knowing the Falcons needed to change something if they wanted to come away victorious.

"We needed to jump-start things with our defense," Zaragoza said.

His girls listened, implementing a full-court pressure defense — the Spartans had no answer.

The overwhelming efforts of the River Valley backcourt stifled the Spartans. The Falcons forced 20 turnovers in the second half, including 13 in the third quarter.

Klarissa Gonzalez, Aleqse Hawkins, Danielle Soba and a host of others contributed to the team's 29 steals.

Add in Taylor Massengale's 6-foot-1 frame in the post and it's clear why the Falcons are off to the program's best start in its six-year existence.

River Valley's relentless effort on defense made up for a poor shooting night as the Falcons knocked off East Nicolaus on the road 41-28, handing the Spartans their first loss of the season.

R.V. (10-4) only shot 19 percent from the field on Tuesday. The Falcons' transition game compensated for that low number with easy points off of fast breaks.

This season, Zaragoza departed from the run-and-gun system as made famous by Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymount in the 1980s. The Falcons kept that same defensive philosophy of high-tempo, full-court pressure, but now run more half-court sets offensively. With a lack of 3-point shooters, and a solid presence in the post from Massengale, River Valley is running more plays.

"Our game plan is to try to get kids in as much as we can and utilize our team speed with our half-court trap and then we extend it out to a full court to generate our offense," Zaragoza said. "Most of our points will come off of that transition."

As was the case against East Nicolaus (11-1).

Massengale took over the game in the third quarter, scoring all nine of her points in the period. She pulled down 20 rebounds and made seven blocks on defense.

Senior captain and 2010-11 All-Tri-County Conference selection Klarissa Gonzalez almost picked up a triple-double with eight points, nine steals and nine rebounds. Danielle Soba led the Falcons with 11 points and seven steals.

That balanced scoring attack has Zaragoza optimistic about what the Falcons can achieve when TCC play begins on Jan. 13.

"With the talent we have, it's a lot easier (to coach)," Zaragoza said. "The girls did a great job tonight."

The first loss of the season shouldn't dishearten the Spartans, considering River Valley's enrollment number is about five times the size of East Nic's.

The Spartans defeated local schools Yuba City, Gridley, Lindhurst and Wheatland already this season. Coach Bob Wolcott said his team needed a game like Tuesday's to learn resiliency.

"This will make us far better," Wolcott said. "That was a good wake-up call and we'll have to move on."

Katie Michel was East Nicolaus' top scorer with seven points.