LJ g BB 26, Lincoln 48

By Ed Piper

The Vikings girls basketball team saw into its future Fri., Jan. 15. It was the speedier, more pressing Lincoln team, which gave La Jolla a 48-26 whipping in a Western League contest.

La Jolla, in the first game of a girls/boys home doubleheader on a drizzly night, trailed only 16-9 in the early going.

But the visiting Hornets, led by senior Raeshondra Dike and junior captain Jeriah Drake, quickly ran away and hid, building what turned out to be an insurmountable 26-12 halftime lead.

Sure, center Satori Roberson has made big strides since last season. "She rebounds where she isn't," new coach Darice Carnaje phrased the senior's new awareness of the court around her.

Yes, sophomore Rebecca Saul continues the scrappy play she first exhibited last year as a freshman, scratching and clawing. She's not a great shot, but her forte is harassing defense.

Okay, Abby Ward, like Saul, her teammate in the backcourt, runs and fights for every ball, doing everything she can to advance the Vikings' cause.

However, as Roberson and the others reached for balls, by the time they looked around, Dike, Drake, and the Hornets' other team captain, Tarazjanae Cooksey, many times already had the ball and were headed to the other basket lickety-split.

Roberson, especially, was visible under the basket giving it the old college try, as she has recently in other games. But her opponents' greater quickness--and experience gained on the hard court--were telling. They told of where Carnaje wants to take her new program.

Another teaching point by the visiting Hornets: They had to come from where they were only a season or two ago to this level. Not too long ago, like last season, La Jolla traveled to Lincoln and played with them the way the Hornets played with LJHS Friday night. Somehow the Lincoln program has undergone a complete overhaul and attracted all-new players with talent.

Carnaje, in her prominent cheerleading throughout the game on the sideline, was urging Sina Anae, Katrina Kurtchi, and a flock of reserves ahead: Kate Miller, Ava Verbrugghen, Sara Tyrus, and others.