Spartan girls fall to San Mateo Spartan girls fall to San Mateo (December 23, 2005)

By Greg Hancock

The Mountain View girls basketball team ventured north to take on San Mateo in the Lady Bearcats Invitational last week, but were unable to overcome the strong play of the Bearcats and their strong point guard.

Despite a solid second half rally, the Spartans ended up on the losing end, 60-49.

The Spartans entered the Dec. 15 game with a 5-4 non-league record and quickly found out that they were in for a major challenge against the 9-1 Bearcats. The challenge was met early by Mountain View as the Spartans led 14-10 after the first period. The second period, however, was not quite as successful, as San Mateo outscored Mountain View 25-11 to put the game out of reach.

"We were down at first because we weren't playing together," said senior center Kayla Vantil. "At halftime, we got together. I got my attitude together and we started playing as a team."

Vantil, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, had a quiet first half. She exploded for nine of her 16 points in the second half, bringing the Spartans within striking distance.

Mountain View battled back in the fourth period and found themselves down only seven points with 1:51 remaining. It was as close as they would get.

San Mateo's star point guard, Haidee Sui, put on a clinic in scoring a game-high 21 points.

Coming off a dominating win over Scotts Valley earlier in the week, Mountain View was looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since knocking off Del Mar and Terra Nova on consecutive nights earlier in the month.

Despite the loss, the Spartans offense came to life. After averaging only 40.5 points per game coming into the San Mateo contest, Mountain View's offense showed that it can be much better as they continued to jell.

"At first we weren't playing well as a team," said Vantil. "We've been playing together for three years and we're getting better as league gets closer."

For Mountain Viewpoint, point guard Biz Lynch scored nine points, and Lisa Klatt had eight in the loss.

The Spartans open league play by hosting Los Altos Jan. 3 E-mail the sports desk at Sports@mv-voice.com

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