Special to the Town Crier
St. Francis
St. Francis High (7-0) remained perfect on the season after capturing the Tennyson Tournament Dec. 15.
The Lady Lancers beat up on Hillsdale 68-48 in the tourney final.
St. Francis leaped out to a 30-17 halftime lead against Hillsdale and never looked back.
The Lancers were led by a balanced scoring attack as five players scored more than eight points. Christine Capuyan and Alyssa Sobolik tallied 14 and 12 points, respectively.
St. Francis begins play in the Mitty New Year's Classic on Monday.
Mountain View
Host Mountain View High improved to 3-5 on the season Dec. 15 with a 46-27 non-league triumph over Irvington.
Senior guard Selena Lewis led the Spartans with 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
"We started slow," Mountain View coach Karl Hawkins said. "We were up 20-18 at halftime and we talked about what we needed to do to get going. Then we out-scored them 17-2 in the third quarter."
The Spartans on Monday opened play in the Cupertino Tournament, which concludes today.
Los Altos
Los Altos High lost a non-league contest to Notre Dame-Belmont 49-30 Dec. 15 at the Burlingame Tournament.
Post player Marisa Whitlock led the Eagles with 14 points.
Los Altos begins play in the Irvington Tournament Monday.
Homestead
Homestead High (4-4) got back on the winning track by whipping visiting Santa Cruz 39-29 Dec. 14 in non-league action.
The Mustangs' balanced scoring attack was paced by Vickie Chiang's 17 points.
Gunn
Pinewood School girls basketball coach Doc Scheppler stated last month that if his Panthers didn't repeat as Division V state champions, the season would be a severe disappointment.
Although the state tournament is more than three months away, Pinewood will find out how good it really is next week.
Starting Monday, the Panthers will be one of 16 teams in the prestigious Mitty New Year's Classic in San Jose.
If Pinewood can get by its first-round opponent, it will likely face Mitty - ranked first in the state and sixth in the nation - in the second round.
The Panthers (6-0) tuned up for the Mitty Tournament by whizzing through the Menlo Invitational last weekend in Atherton.
The Panthers drilled Menlo 83-54 in the title game and beat their three tournament opponents by an average score of 77-33. Pinewood throttled Carlmont in opening-round action 83-11.
"I thought we would be playing better," said Scheppler, who sat out Saturday's championship game due to an ejection in Friday's 54-34 semifinal win over Leland. "I thought we would be farther along. We'll be ready for the Mitty tournament."
Expectations are high at the tiny Los Altos Hills campus, and the Panthers seem to have all the tools to again reach lofty heights.
Standout junior guard Sebnem Kimyacioglu led Pinewood over the weekend by averaging 25 points per game and was named the tournament's most outstanding player.
Sophomore point guard Sarah Feely had a superb three games and was also tabbed to the all-tournament team.
Sophomore forward Darcy Nelson had her biggest game of the year, tallying 20 points against Menlo.
Gunn defeated host Milpitas 52-48 Dec. 13 in a non-league game.
The Titans (7-1) had three players score 10 points each: guards Katherine Wang and Gretchen Mueller, plus center Jacqueline Heler.
Gunn opens SCVAL De Anza Division play at 7 p.m., Jan. 4 against visiting Homestead.