Giants fall to Butte in semifinals of Gilcrest Invitational women's basketball tournament

By Nick Giannandrea

COS ATHLETICS

The inconsistent play that has plagued College of the Sequoias women's basketball team so far this season continued during the semifinals of the 48th annual Tom Gilcrest Invitational.

The state preseason No. 2-ranked Giants fell behind by 13 points to start the game and were never able to pull into the lead the rest of the way en route to a 71-65 loss against No. 21 Butte on Dec. 5 at Porter Field House.

"We're not good," Sequoias coach Tyler Newton said. "We played really bad."

The Giants (4-5) dropped into the third-place game of the eight-team, showcase tournament featuring six state-ranked squads. Sequoias will face No. 4 San Joaquin Delta at 2 p.m. Dec. 6. Butte advances to take on No. 10 Laney in the championship at 4 p.m. No. 1 and reigning state champion Mt. San Antonio plays Los Angeles Valley in the consolation championship at noon, and No. 5 Moorpark meets Chabot for seventh-place at 3 p.m.

One night after turning in one of their best performances of the season in an 82-49 victory over L.A. Valley, the Giants surrendered 15 straight points to the Roadrunners (10-3) following a basket by Olivia Gill (Woodland) to open the scoring.

Sequoias got no closer than six points during a first half that saw it shoot 27 percent (7 of 26) from the field, including an 0-for-8 effort from 3-point range.

Butte led 30-19 at halftime.

"When you play good teams, you have to play 40 minutes of good basketball," said Newton, who led the Giants to a 31-1 record and the state semifinals during his first season as the program's coach in 2024-2025. "We talked about this. We talked about the way we played last night. We did not play like we did last night. We showed up as a completely different team today. This is our problem. We're inconsistent. We have no consistency. We have no pride. We're not playing hard. We're not playing for each other. We're playing selfish basketball. And this is not what we do here. I keep talking to them about it, and we're just not bought in, so shame on me for not figuring it out."

The Giants got back into the game in the second half.

After falling behind by 14 points early in the third quarter, Gabby Brooks (Henderson, Nev.) scored eight of her 11 points by the end of the third as Sequoias pulled within seven at 43-36.

Kalysa Phanhsavang (Stockton) brought the Giants into a 50-50 by making a pair of free throws with 4 minutes and 14 seconds remaining in the game to cap a 12-4 run.

Butte, which won the Gilcrest in 2022 and 2023 when Newton was the Roadrunners' coach, responded with an 8-2 run to surge back in front 60-55 with 2:35 left.

Sequoias would tie the score 60-60 on a 3-pointer by Sydney Chesnut (Henderson, Nev.) with 1:37 to go, and at 62-62 on a basket by Demi Boykin (Marysville) with 1:04 remaining, but the Roadrunners went on a 9-3 run the rest of the way to pull away.

The Giants outscored Butte 46-41 in the second half, but hurt their chances by shooting 58.3 percent (7 of 12) from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. The Roadrunners made 16 of 17 free throws in the fourth quarter.

"When we play basketball like we're supposed to, we have a chance," Newton said. "But when we only do that for 20 minutes. We can't win. It's not enough."

Anderson led Sequoias with 13 points, six assists, four rebounds and a steal.

Phanhsavang also scored 13 points, along with three rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Brooks added a rebound and an assist to her 11 points.

The Giants also received seven points, two rebounds an assist and a steal from Gill; six points, three rebounds and three steals from Izabel Mendez (Caruthers); six points, three rebounds and three assists from Chesnut; five points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals from Boykin; two points and two rebounds from Ava King (Bakersfield Christian); two points, two steals and a rebound from Vivian Moore (Central East-Fresno); and a rebound from Mallary Gonzalez (Hoover-Fresno).

In the other semifinal, Erinn Gardere scored 28 points off the bench as Laney (7-3) rallied from a 19-point first-half deficit during a 77-74 overtime victory over Delta (6-1). Sophia Goncalves added 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Eagles, who have never won the Gilcrest.

Taliyah McFerson delivered 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists as Mt. SAC (8-1) rolled to a 66-46 victory over Moorpark (7-2) in the consolation semifinals.

L.A. Valley (2-5) received 28 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals from Aliyah Mohammad in a 65-61 win over Chabot (1-8) in the other consolation semifinal.