We Play Hard!

Ventura 64, Fresno 70

State Quarterfinals at Stockton

March 13, 2008

Box Score

     We Play Hard means giving your best effort all the time.  It means never having to make excuses or to explain yourself.  The Pirates have to do neither as they left everything on the court Thursday night at the Spanos Center in the state quarterfinals against Fresno City College .  Unfortunately, VC's best wasn't quite enough as the fell to the Rams 70-64 in a hard-fought battle to qualify for the State Final Four.  Ventura 's season ends with a record of 29-6 and an appearance in the State Elite Eight, both the best since the 2002-03 season.

     The Pirates were unable to take advantage of a pair of Fresno turnovers out of the blocks, and fell behind 2-0 when the Rams hit a two free throws.  Michelle Santizo got Ventura (29-6) on the board with a lay-up and Jenelle Conklin gave VC the lead with a drive down the middle with a pull-up jumper.  After the Rams tied the game at 4-4, Santizo nailed a 3-pointer with 14:40 on the clock.  Trailing 10-9, Conklin hit a bucket at the 12:58 mark to begin a 14-2 Pirate run.  Julie Heurung, Santizo, and Indira Kaljo all hit shots, and Heurung had three blocks in a row on one defensive possession during the run.  The Pirate fast break hit all cylinders when every player on the floor touched the ball and Santizo completed the break as VC took a 23-12 lead with 7:56 remaining.

     Fresno (35-2), however, would come storming back, as should be expected from Northern California's top-ranked team, according to the final coaches poll of the season.  A Conklin basket from a Kaljo assist was the only Pirate bucket in an 8-2 Ram run to get back into the game.  Heurung cooled the Fresno fire at the 4:49 mark with a trifecta making the score 28-21 in favor of Ventura.  Kaljo buried a 3-pointer following an offensive rebound by Eja Wong with 3:03 on the clock, and Santizo hit a long-range bomb with seven seconds left to give VC a 34-29 halftime advantage. 

     In the second half, Ventura seemed to loose its energy.  Conklin hit a 3-pointer on the first Pirate possession making the score 37-29, but VC was holding on by a thread the rest of the way.  Fresno closed to within one, 37-36, with a 7-0 run before Wong hit a 15-footer to hold off the Rams for the moment with 14:22 remaining in the game.  A Kaljo steal led to a Conklin bucket and Randi Hicks nailed two charity tosses to take the Pirate advantage back to seven, 43-36 at the 12:46 mark.  Fresno would score the next seven points, however, to tie the score at 43 with 10:40 remaining.

     There would be two ties and 11 lead changes over the next six minutes before Kaljo hit a 3-pointer with 4:27 on the clock giving VC a 59-57 lead.  The Pirates were unable to capture any momentum, however, as Fresno began to take control of the game.  The Rams tied the score on the next possession and slowly built a 64-59 lead before Wong hit a runner in the paint to close the deficit to a single possession with 22.7 seconds remaining.  Ventura was forced to foul down the stretch, and Fresno answered with made free throws.  Wong hit a shot with eight ticks left in the Pirates' season to bring VC within four, 68-64, but a pair of Ram charity tosses closed out the score at 70-64.

     Conklin closed out her VC career with a team-high 15 points to go along with six rebounds and three steals.  Kaljo and Santizo each contributed 14 points while Heurung added nine points.  Heurung pulled down six boards and Santizo dished out five assists.  

     Ventura finished the year with a 29-6 record and this appearance in the state quarterfinals.  Both are the team's best since 2003-04.  They completed a perfect 12-0 Western State Conference mark winning the program's 18th consecutive conference title.  Six Pirates closed out their careers in the orange and black at the state tournament:  Conklin, Hicks, Kaljo, Sara Nicholson, Lindsay Trout, and Wong. Meanwhile, sophomore Jessi Selleh looks to return from her season-ending back injury along with freshmen Heurung, Jameson, Christine McPherson, and Santizo.

     The final game of a season is never easy, and the difficulty of the campaign's culmination is magnified the farther in March a team advances.  It is easy to play a "what if" game when a team looses its final contest, but it will never do any good.  The Pirates faced many obstacles this season, many off the court and many that young college-age women should not have to face, and they handled them with class and dignity.  This Pirate team was a special assemblage of young women who, in the future, will accomplish great things, like what they accomplished together in the 2007-08 basketball season.