The Lady Greyhounds made short work of three overmatched opponents in recent North Bay League varsity basketball action, posting routs over Santa Rosa, Elsie Allen and St. Vincent.
The wins pushed Healdsburg’s second-place league record to 6-2 and 16-7 on the year.
At press time the ladies were preparing to close out the NBL Redwood Division Schedule with road dates at Santa Rosa (Feb. 8, after press time) and Piner (Feb. 10). Game times for the JV and varsity are 6 and 7:30 p.m.
Healdsburg is a good bet to land a spot in the upcoming North Coast Section Division 4 playoff tournament, which starts in two weeks.
Healdsburg hat-trick
The Hounds opened a busy stretch of hoops in a Feb. 1 home clash with Santa Rosa, holding the Panthers scoreless in a great second quarter to grab a 32-6 halftime lead. There was no let-up after the break as Healdsburg powered to a 54-29 victory.
Hailey Webb paced the attack with 13 points, while other top scorers included Itzel Ortiz (11 points), Ashley Behrens (11 points), Ruby Leffew (8 points), Maddie Wagner (8 points) and Katy Conrad(2 points).
It was more of the same against visiting Elsie Allen on Senior Night on Feb. 2, honoring gradating veterans Katy Conrad and Emily Dunkel in a pre-game ceremony. The Hounds used the added emotion to swamp the Lobos, 24-10 in the first half. Healdsburg held the visitors to just two points in the final 16 minutes en route to a 55-12 rout. Ortiz took top scoring honors with 18 points. Other big contributors were Webb (15 points), Behrens (6 points), Leffew (6 points), Conrad (5 points), Allie Espinoza (2 points) and Dunkel (2 points).
Healdsburg completed the hat trick the following night at St. Vincent in Petaluma, overwhelming the Mustangs with a stifling defense to open up an insurmountable, 34-6 cushion at the half. The Hounds emptied their bench in the final two periods with no drop-off on their way to a 57-19 romp.
“I wanted to give the girls an incentive to keep playing tough defense so I told them before the game that if we held St Vincent scoreless the 1st 10 minutes of the game, I would treat them to ice cream,” HHS coach Steve Zichichi said. “Needless to say, they played very inspired defense and made it very difficult for their opponents to get a shot off.”
Ortiz paced the offense with 15 points. Other top scorers included Wagner (11 points), Conrad (8 points), Webb (5 points) and Leffew (4 points).
