Thacher Toad hoopsters hop into CIF semifinals
By Jesse Phelps

Thacher's varsity girls are the last area school basketball team still standing after a week of CIF playoff action.
By virtue of wins this week over Scotts Academy and second-ranked Santa Clarita Christian, Thacher has moved into the semi-finals of the CIF Division VAA playoffs and will now take on a tough New Roads squad in a bid to reach the finals.

In a physical matchup against Scotts Academy, Thacher won by a sizable margin, 74-51, but coach Melissa Johnson said it "felt like a three point game."
Scotts was penalized for two technical fouls, one on the coach, in a hotly contested match. Thacher's players maintained their collective cool.
"The task was growing up, not being rattled by their press," Johnson said. "So much of coaching and playing is momentum and confidence."

Thacher center Whitney Livermore, junior co-captain, scored 23 points, using her size inside to score over the top of the defense. But the play of the game, said Johnson, was a rebound in which Livermore skyed above everyone to snatch the ball out of the night in an impressive show of athleticism.

Freshman off-guard Erica Puccetti had 16 and junior forward Steph Rauner contributed 15 for the Toads. Sophomore point guard Becky Horton scored 11 points and senior co-captain Annie Wheatley added nine.

Johnson said, "Our kids were getting knocked around quite a bit, but they managed to dig really deep, play good defense and hit hit the boards. They played really well as a team and maintained their composure."
The ensuing match against Santa Clarita Christian provided an even tougher test for the Toads.

The Cardinals, "a very well-coached, very disciplined, very scrappy team," in Johnsosn's words, staged a last-minute comeback that nearly sent Thacher packing early.

"I don't think we played a team this year that hit the boards as hard as they did," Johnson said.
Down 15-10 after one quarter, Thacher outscored Santa Clarita Christian by eight points to take a 28-25 halftime lead.

The third quarter featured a lot of back-and-forth action and the teams switched leads several times. The Cardinal press harried the Toads and several turnovers turned into easy hoops in transition for Santa Clarita Christian.
Johnson said, "They try to create chaos with their press and they do a good job of it. They've been in tight games and know how to put pressure on." Still, the Toads led by one heading into the fourth.

Thacher managed to pull away in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter and things looked good for the Toads, up seven with a minute and half to go. Then the Cardinals made their run.
"We've been in these situations before," Johnson told her team in the huddle. "The most important thing is to get the last shot."

Off the inbounds pass, Thacher went to its motion offense. Pucetti, who led Thacher with 19 points, found a crease and drove to the hoop. For a moment, it looked as if she'd been tied up underneath but with the clock running down, she managed to pull the ball free and pass to Wheatly on the baseline, who launched an 8-footer toward the goal.
"I saw the ball and I thought to myself, Oh, my God, that's going to go in," said Johnson. "It was like underwater, slow-motion."

Go in it did and Santa Clarita tried in vain to call time out as the clock hit zeroes.
Johnson said, "The sweetest words I'd heard all day came from the ref as he turned and said, 'That's the ballgame.'" The final score was Thacher 58, Santa Clarita Christian 56.

Wheatley scored seven points on the night, none more important than the game-winner. Rauner had 13, Livermore 10 and Horton, who had been experiencing flu-like symptoms, chipped in nine.
"Horton is the general," said Johnson. "Becky, in so many games this year, when things start to go bad, has single-handedly shifted the momentum of the game. She's a coach's dream."

Johnson was ecstatic about her entire team's effort."Livermore is a stabilizing force for us," she said. "Rauner, she's fantastic. Great natural skills. She's very fluid, very coordinated. You have to honor her outside, which makes her really tough to guard."
New Roads, Thacher's next opponent, has been dominating opponents with an average margin of victory of 22 points in the tournament. "We'll just stick to our game plan, do what we do well and leave everything we've got on the court," said Johnson.
Thacher won the coin-flip and will play in Ojai at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Villanova or Nordhoff.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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