Don't tell the Atascadero and Righetti girls basketball team members the phrase “the little things,” is a sports cliche.

“The little things made the most difference,” reserve Atascadero junior center Alicia Damerow said after she helped key a second-half rally with her offensive rebounding. The Greyhounds rebounded from an early 11-point deficit to win 55-47 at Righetti's Warrior Gym in a PAC-7 League showdown for first place Tuesday night.

Scoreless in the first half, Damerow scored seven points in the second. She made five of her six foul shots, with all of her free throws coming off fouls on her own offensive rebounds.

Besides Damerow's work, “We were able to run a couple of things on offense to get Stephanie Cullors open,” Atascadero coach Paul Hill said. “Little things.”

By contrast, “The little things killed us,” said Kristina Santiago, Righetti's standout senior center who led all scorers with 22 points.

In the second half, “All of a sudden we couldn't pass the ball, couldn't catch the ball,” said Santiago, the girls area scoring leader who has signed with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said afterward. “We traveled. You can't make those kinds of mistakes.

“I think we got flustered. We wanted to win so bad. Maybe we overdid it,” on the adrenaline.

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“Atascadero played good.”

Atascadero shooting guard Stephanie Cullors, the area's leading 3-point scorer, and forward Hannah Donaghe, a Stanford signee, heated up as the game went on and wound up with 20 points each.

Atascadero (8-0, 18-3) swept the two-game season series from its chief PAC-7 rival. Righetti is 5-2, 13-9.

Cullors made three of her four three-pointers after halftime. Damerow and Donaghe started beating the Warriors to rebounds when the Greyhounds were on offense, and reserve Molly Brown helped Atascadero keep Righetti from getting a single second-half offensive rebound.

All of that, plus Righetti turnovers and nine Atascadero second-chance points in the fourth quarter, amounted to too much for the Warriors to overcome.

Hannah Cooper's 3-pointer brought the Warriors within 49-46 with 3:17 left. However, they scored one point and made three consecutive turnovers at one point after that.

The Warriors' man-to-man defense had the usually patient Greyhounds utterly out of synch for most of the first quarter. With the Warriors constantly harassing their ballhandlers and getting in their passing lanes, the ‘Hounds could get neither Cullors nor Donaghe untracked.

Donaghe made a free throw for the first point of the game. Monica Valencia (13 points Tuesday night) canned a 3-pointer as the Warriors ran off the next 10.

“They came out with a great game plan,” said Hill. “We had to make some adjustments.”

The ‘Hounds did, and, with area assists leader Breana Hinton running the show on offense, Cullors and Donaghe started scoring more often.

Still, with point guard Desiree Domingues quarterbacking their offense efficiently and Santiago out-playing Donaghe, the Warriors kept their lead throughout the first half.

The Warriors led 26-20, and then Hinton got hit with a technical foul half a second before halftime. Santiago made both resulting free throws for the last of her 16 first-half points.

Chelsea Mitchell and Elisa Ayala forced an Atascadero turnover on the first second-half possession. Santiago scored inside to make it 30-20, and then the dynamics changed in Atascadero's favor for good.

After being the aggressors in the first half, his players “got a little flat-footed,” in the second, Righetti coach Harold Oliveira said.

“They were attacking the basket. We weren't. They were getting offensive rebounds. We were standing watching them. They were getting fouls because they were attacking the basket. They were getting to the line. We weren't.”

The Greyhounds made 16 of their 24 free throws. The Warriors made seven of their 12. Atascadero outscored Righetti 12-2 from the line after intermission and, unofficially, had nine offensive rebounds to the Warriors' none then.

Brown “usually doesn't play much, but she must have had five rebounds,” said an impressed Hill.

Cullors made a trey as she was falling backwards to the floor while being fouled. Her four-point play gave Atascadero its first lead, at 37-36 with 1:26 left in the third quarter, since 1-0.

The Greyhounds salted the game away with those nine second-chance points in the fourth quarter.

“We played hard, but Atascadero deserved to win,” Righetti coach Harold Oliveira said.

The atmosphere was highly charged going in - Hill was ejected after a confrontation with Oliveira in the teams' game at Atascadero. The altercation came after Donaghe incurred a hyperextended knee - and a large portion of the West stands was cordoned off.

“We usually open just one side of the stands for girls games, but we knew there would be a bigger crowd this time so we opened both sides,” said Righetti High School Athletic Director Eric Albright.

“We had heard that things had gotten a little tense up there with the stands situation,” so the section behind the Righetti bench was cordoned off. There were no pre-game introductions. The opposing players shook hands afterward, and there were no post-game incidents.

“Other than the technical foul, which was a retaliation for a hit on the head, we kept our cool,” said Hill.

The Greyhounds also did enough of the little things right to win.

Atascadero JV 46

Righetti 41

Alyssa Uvalle scored 16 points for the Warriors, but the Greyhounds won a close one

Nipomo 39

Pioneer Valley 38

Rachel Smith didn't score a point, but she made the play of the game.

Smith made a sweet pass to Sami Ramsey, who made a layup as time expired to give the Titans a big PAC-7 win at Pioneer Valley. The Panthers had wiped out the 35-24 deficit they faced as the fourth quarter began.

Jeanette DeWitt scored 16 points for the Titans (2-6, 6-15) as they played themselves into the hunt for fourth place and the league's last guaranteed playoff spot. Rosales had 11 points.

Angela Aguilar led the Fourth-place Panthers (3-4, 10-10) with 13 points. Ashley Sandoval scored 10. The Titans have four league games left.

January 24, 2007