Minutes before Cathedral Catholic High School’s Southern California Division 2 quarterfinal girls basketball playoff game against Arroyo Grande on Thursday night, Dons coach Jackie Turpin watched her star player, senior Maddie Moeller, limp about the court, her right leg saddled by a huge brace.
Moeller and her 19 points per game have been missing since early January, when her season was ended by a torn ACL. But the Dons persevered, reaching the state playoffs.
“I’m super proud of them,” Turpin said minutes before tipoff. “We feel like this year has been an overachievement.”
The season came to a close on the Dons’ home court when Arroyo Grande withstood multiple Cathedral Catholic rallies to hand the hosts a 68-54 defeat. Arroyo Grande (18-10) advances to the semifinals. Cathedral finishes 20-10, the Dons’ seventh 20-win season in the last eight years.
Cathedral might have come up short on the scoreboard, but Turpin loved her players’ effort.
“This team finds a way,” she said. “We’ve won some tough games. There’s a belief that we can come back from almost anything.”
Cathedral almost pulled off another comeback. The Dons trailed 13-2 in the first quarter but cut the deficit to three in the second period. They trailed 47-38 going into the fourth quarter, then watched the Eagles immediately hit four free throws to make it a 13-point game.
“Our team’s mentality, we use the word goldfish,” said sophomore McKinley Hanlon, who scored a season high 33 points. “We just forget the last play and move on.”
The Dons rallied again, going on a 14-3 to slice Arroyo Grande’s lead to 54-52 with 4:04 to play.
But the visitors wouldn’t crack, responding with an 11-0 run to take control.
The difference was Arroyo Grande’s inside tandem of 6-foot-3 Diana Sorrondo and 6-1 Kinzie Amer, plus a balanced attack. Sorrondo scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Amer scored nine points and secured 10 rebounds.
The Eagles landed two other players in double figures. Hanlon was the other player in double figures for Cathedral.
“Credit to Arroyo Grande,” said Turpin. “They made some tough buckets, hit some big 3s. It just got away from us.”
After Hanlon was scoreless in the first quarter, she responded with 17 points in the second quarter, including four 3s. One was an accidental bank shot.
“No,” joked Hanlon, “I didn’t call bank.”
She finished with six 3s, plus a couple beautiful assists when Arroyo Grande collapsed on her when she drove to the basket.
Hanlon itted she was gassed in the third quarter, hitting one 3 as Turpin sent a player to the scorer’s table to sub.
Said Hanlon, “I just looked at coach, she said, ‘Run,’ and I ran.”
Turpin, meanwhile, evoked former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi.
“What’s the saying?” said Turpin. “We didn’t lose the game. We just ran out of time.”
