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Calaveras beat Bret Harte 41-29 on Friday night in Angels Camp.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
The Calaveras High School girls’ basketball team has played five Mother Lode League games and in four of them, the Red Hawks have been the visiting team.
And each one of those road games had a unique challenge. Against Summerville, the game was moved from the smaller gym because of a leaky roof in the main gym. Argonaut has one of the smaller gyms in the league and is one of the most difficult buildings for a road team to leave with a victory. And Sonora’s Bud Castle gym has never been a comfortable place for the Red Hawks, as they have had trouble on the home hardwood of the Wildcats.
But against Summerville, Argonaut and Sonora, Calaveras got back onto the bus and returned to San Andreas with a victory.
Bret Harte senior Kadyn Rolleri goes up for a layup in the first quarter against Calaveras.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
And yet, there is no road atmosphere in the Mother Lode League that is more difficult for Calaveras to battle against than its annual road rivalry matchup with the Bret Harte Bullfrogs. With a packed gym filled with fans watching two of the top teams in the league battle for not only a top spot in the standings, but county bragging rights, Calaveras was once again able to walk off the home floor of an opponent with a win.
Calaveras improved to 5-0 in Mother Lode League play, which includes going 4-0 away from San Andreas with a 41-29 road victory over the Bullfrogs on Friday night at Bob Bach Gym in Angels Camp.
“We saw that league schedule and we knew that it was going to be tough having four of the first five games on the road,” Calaveras head coach Eric Baechler said. “That’s why we played so many tough preseason games on the road. We are used to playing on the road. Shoot, we’ve only had three home games, so 20 of our games have been on the road. We are a good road team.”
Calaveras' Hannah Emerson runs the offense against Bret Harte.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
Rivalry games against Bret Harte are always difficult, but with the recent resurgence of the Bullfrog program over the past two years—which included a trip to the CIF D5 section championship game in 2022—the Bullfrogs are as dangerous as they have been since they last knocked off Calaveras, which was back in 2015.
“Every time we play Bret Harte, we know that we can’t underestimate them because they are a good group of girls,” Calaveras senior Bailie Clark said. “Everybody plays better when they play Calaveras. We just have to go into every game, but especially against Bret Harte knowing that they want to beat us the most and we need to play our game.”
The Red Hawks knew that the best way to quiet the capacity crowd was to take an early lead and that’s exactly what they did. Less than three minutes into the game, Calaveras had a commanding 10-1 lead. In the opening eight minutes, the Red Hawks scored 19 points and 15 of those came from 3-point land. The senior duo of Brooke Nordahl and Madyson Bernasconi combined to make five shots from behind the arc in the first quarter, with Bernasconi leading the way with three of them. Clark could tell early in the night that Bernasconi had the hot hand, and she had no problem feeding her the ball.
Bret Harte senior Aariah Fox scored a team-high nine points against Calaveras.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
“We needed that,” Clark said of Bernasconi’s early shots from downtown. “It got us going and it gave us momentum. When someone is on, you have to feed them, and she was who I was trying to find in the corner.”
Trailing early, Bret Harte tried to cut into the Calaveras lead and that happened with four points from junior Chase Silva, a 3-point basket from freshman Maddie Kane, two points from senior Aariah Fox and a free throw from senior Kadyn Rolleri and at the end of the first quarter, Calaveras led 19-10.
Calaveras (18-5, 5-0 MLL) extended its lead to 23-12 with 5:51 to play in the half, but the Bullfrogs cut the deficit to seven with points from junior Makenna Tutthill, Rolleri and Fox. With 36 seconds to play in the second quarter, Calaveras got its seventh 3-point basket of the night, as senior Laney Koepp hit a trey to give the Red Hawks a 26-16 lead heading into the locker room.
Calaveras senior Madyson Bernasconi scored a game-high 11 points against Bret Harte.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
The Red Hawks outscored Bret Harte 7-5 in the third quarter with four points off the bench from Natalie Brothers, two points from Bernasconi and a free throw from Clark. Bret Harte got its five points from a 3-point basket from senior Ashlin Arias and a jumper from Silva. Heading into the fourth quarter, Calaveras had a strong 33-21 lead.
“Our defense is playing phenomenal and to me, that’s the game changer,” Baechler said. “We are the only team who plays man-to-man, so we can throw a different look at teams who are used to seeing only zone. We’ve been working on it at every practice over the last two weeks and it’s paid off.”
Trailing by 12, the Bullfrogs were running out of time to catch up to the Red Hawks on the scoreboard. Fox began the fourth quarter with two free throws and Arias followed with points in the paint and Fox capped the 6-0 run with a layup. With 6:16 to play, the Bullfrogs trailed by just six.
Bret Harte junior Chase Silva shoots from 3-point land against Calaveras.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
“Our girls are never out of a game, and I think they are learning that as the year goes on, which is great to see,” Bret Harte head coach Jeff Eltringham said. “It’s just a testament to who they are. They didn’t give up and they kept battling. I’m just super proud of their effort to bounce back and cut the deficit down.”
Trailing by six, the Bullfrogs had a chance to make it a three-point game, but a shot from downtown was off the mark. Calaveras ended Bret Harte’s hopes of a comeback with six unanswered points all scored by junior Izzy Tapia.
“I’m so proud of her,” Baechler said of Tapia. “We’ve been hammering her to just keep at it and we knew that her success was going to come. In the first half she had some excellent looks, but she did what we really have been wanting her to do and that’s finish games. She stayed strong and the ball fell for her.”
Calaveras senior Laney Koepp shoots in the second quarter.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
Bernasconi finished the night with a game-high 11 points and also had six rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block; Koepp had three points, four rebounds and one assist; Clark had nine points, eight rebounds, two assists, seven steals and one block; Nordahl had six points, a game-high 10 rebounds and one assist; Brothers finished with six points and two rebounds; and Tapia had six points, four boards and three steals.
As for Bret Harte (15-5, 3-2 MLL) Fox led the way with nine points, five rebounds, three steals, one block and two assists; Arias had seven points and two rebounds; Rolleri had three points, two rebounds, two steals and one assist; Kane had three points, two rebounds and one steal; Silva scored six points with seven boards and one steal; and Tutthill had six rebounds, one point, one steal and one assist.
“They played like I knew they would,” Eltringham said about his team. “They played extremely hard on defense and sometimes it comes down to people making shots and Calaveras made early ones and we didn’t.”
Bret Harte senior Ashlin Arias scored seven points in the loss to Calaveras.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
Bret Harte’s senior group of Fox, Arias, Rolleri, CJ DesBouillons, Mackenzie Carroll and Teagan Serpa will not know what it feels like to beat Calaveras in Angels Camp in four years at Bret Harte. Now the Bullfrogs will try to become the first Bret Harte team to knock off Calaveras in San Andreas in eight years.
“Yeah, it is Calaveras, and it would have been awesome to beat them here at home, but honestly, it’ll be even better if we can beat them in their gym and I hope that we can do that,” Arias said.
Calaveras' Bailie Clark scored nine points and had eight rebounds, seven steals, two assists and one block in the win over Bret Harte.
Guy Dossi/Calaveras Enterprise
Calaveras finishes the first round of league play with a perfect 5-0 record and has a two-game lead in the standings over the trio of Bret Harte, Sonora and Argonaut. With four of their next five games in San Andreas, the Red Hawks will try to stay perfect while playing on their home floor.
“We always love playing at home, but we can’t underestimate any team,” Clark said. “I don’t want to lose any game. I want to finish the league season undefeated.”
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