The article below originally appeared on MercuryNews.com and is being reprinted with permission.
Backup point guard Colleen Goeser doesn’t mind coming off the bench. The sophomore on the Foothill College women’s basketball team sits behind Raeshel Contreras, a dynamic scorer who was an All-State selection as a freshman last season.
So Goeser bides her time on the bench, well aware the frenetic style employed by the Owls requires contributions from nearly the entire roster.
“Coach Craig has always made it known our role is to give another spark to the team that it’s missing,” said Goeser, a Carlmont-Belmont graduate.
College of San Mateo could have used such a spark Wednesday night in Los Altos Hills as the visitors ran out of gas when Foothill, the top-ranked team in Northern California, turned up its defensive intensity in an 83-61 victory.
“We wanted to separate ourselves,” Foothill coach Jody Craig said. “And I think we do that on the defensive end, where our depth is the key.”
CSM (12-8, 2-1 Coast Conference) held a comfortable 24-17 lead with 7:55 left in the third quarter after forward Hannan Salah, who led the Bulldogs with 15 points, scored a fast-break layup. But Foothill (20-2, 2-0) used a 14-0 run to take the lead for good.
“When we stopped scoring, we got frustrated and we stopped talking on defense,” CSM coach Michelle Warner said. “And they killed us on the boards. That’s been our main Achilles’ heel.”
Down 31-24, CSM got back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore guard Nicole McDonald, who finished with 14 points, but Foothill answered back with a 7-2 run to close out the half ahead 38-32.
The situation immediately got bleaker for the Bulldogs as the Owls opened the second half on a 10-0 run. With 10:01 left, Foothill found itself ahead 66-38 — the largest lead of the night.
“We wanted to dig in defensively and be more aggressive,” Craig said of the second-half surge. “And those two things together looked a lot differently.”
Contreras, who drained five 3-pointers to notch a game-high 26 points, did most of her damage in the first half with 17 points. She scored on a drive 10 seconds after intermission, but was not heard from again until back-to-back treys 35 seconds apart with less than four minutes left.
That’s because Foothill had four other players in double digits — Nikki Powell and Recehl Carter with 11 points, Jessica Woo with 10 and, of course, the orchestrator off the bench Goeser with also 11.
“I think Colleen Goeser was phenomenal,” Craig said. “There is no drop-off anymore.”
Email Vytas Mazeika at vmazeika@dailynewsgroup.com.
CSM 32 29 — 61
Foothill 38 45 — 83
CSM–Salah 6 3-3 15, McDonald 3 5-6 14, Castillo 2 2-2 7, Mendoza 3 0-0 7, Fung 2 1-2 5, Roth 2 0-0 4, Kanongata’a 1 0-0 2, Balling 1 0-0 2, Piccolotti 1 0-1 2, David 0 2-2 2, Gibbs 0 1-4 1. Totals 21 14-20 61.
F–Contreras 8 5-9 26, Powell 5 1-1 11, Goeser 4 2-3 11, Carter 4 3-4 11, Woo 5 0-0 10, Harrison 1 1-2 3, Estremera 1 0-0 3, Williams 1 0-0 2, Richard 1 0-0 2, Salom 1 0-0 2, Boatley 1 0-0 2.
3-pointers: McDonald 3, Castillo, Mendoza (CSM). Contreras 5, Goeser, Estremera (F).
