Modesto Christian girls torched by St. Mary’s in season-ending loss

Robb Spencer took his young son’s hand and found a soft place to land.

The end came fast for the Modesto Christian girls basketball team Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I tournament, but the fall took forever. Even with a running clock.

St. Mary’s made its first nine shots, including a barrage of three-pointers from Kat Tudor, as the nation’s top-ranked team turned this intriguing matchup of parochial powers into a 113-43 rout.

That the heavily favored Rams would advance to the semifinals was essentially decided by halftime. The only question that remained at the intermission was: by how many?

In true Tom Gonsalves fashion, the Rams – with their endless stream of speed and blue-chip talent – played relentlessly until the final horn.

For all of his success during a 15-year career at Modesto Christian, Spencer, the architect of seven section championships and one state title, is now 0-9 against St. Mary’s.

“That so-called rivalry, you have to win on the other side for it to be a rivalry,” he said. “But it’s always been competitive. This is probably the worst game out of this series, if you look back. That’s why they’re No. 1 in the nation. You can’t take anything away from them.”

The loss sent one of the section’s blue bloods into the offseason before March for the first time in a decade.

Modesto Christian (21-7) had appeared in 10 consecutive section finals with seven blue banners, including last year’s D-II title. Each trip came packaged with a berth in the CIF State tournament.

Spencer wasn’t upset to see the streak end. Instead, he found the silver lining in the loss. For all its turnovers and missed shots, Modesto Christian kept fighting.

Senior Lailoni Gaines closed her prep career with a team-high 17 points.

At 6-foot, Gaines was the one piece St. Mary’s failed to neutralize. She had the speed to run the floor with its guards and the strength to bully its post.

The Modesto Metro Conference MVP had 10 of the Crusaders’ 13 points in the second quarter.

“She’s been the rock the whole season. She doesn’t get the credit she’s due,” Spencer said. “I can put her on point guards. I can put her in the post or the wing. I have her shoot outside and post up. That’s why she was the MVP of the MMC. She did it all for us.”

Lexia Bell-White had 10 points, and Aylssa Sandoval made two three-pointers in the third quarter for Modesto Christian, which trailed 81-23 at halftime.

“I’m proud of them. They could have tucked tail at halftime and went away, but we didn’t. They kept fighting and fighting, regardless of the score. That’s all we talk about: What’s your legacy? How are you going to finish?” Spencer said. “Not going to state and breaking that streak – it ain’t about that. It’s how you play and against who you play. We’ve never played the No. 1 team in the nation in the second round of the playoffs, so you put that into perspective.”

Six players scored in double figures for the Rams (25-0), who will face No. 4 Folsom on Tuesday in the semifinals at University of the Pacific.

Tudor finished with 19 points and sat out the second half.

Naje’ Murray and Ariel Johnson had 13 points apiece, while Angel Johnson finished with 12.

Raziya Potter and Mi’Cole Cayton each had 10 as St. Mary’s – nationally ranked No. 1 by ESPN, MaxPreps and USA Today – needed only three quarters to reach 100 points.

Modesto Christian struggled with the Rams’ full-court press. By halftime, the Crusaders had more turnovers (31) than points (23).

“Guard-wise, we weren’t as strong as we should be. Coming into this, you knew what was going to happen if you didn’t take care of the ball. You seen that from the start,” Spencer said. “When we turned the corner, we got an opportunity, whether we made it or not. We hit the middle and went side to side, and we had a shot, but we didn’t do that consistently. You can’t not be consistent against them because they capitalize on everything you do wrong.”

Like the small, soft hand in his, Spencer believes Modesto Christian’s future is full of promise. He graduates only two seniors – Gaines and Bell-White – while welcoming back injured guard Meagan Warwick (back).

Spencer will spend the next few weeks preparing a plan to compete with the best at the D-I level. He’ll use the sting of a 70-point loss to drive his offseason program and AAU schedule.

“It’s going to be motivation for us to start in a couple weeks and have a totally different game plan for next year,” Spencer said. “This is what we’re going to have to go through now that we’re D-I.

“We got to get stronger, faster and quicker. … Can it be better? I think so.”

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 11:40 PM with the headline "Modesto Christian girls torched by St. Mary’s in season-ending loss."