Roseville comeback comes up short at Oakmont

A poor third quarter put Roseville in a 10-point hole, trailing Oakmont, 37-27, on Tuesday night. Oakmont led by one point, 38-27, before scoring the last nine point of the quarter on two free throws by Lily Nelson, a three-pointer by Kaitlyn Fayter and a four-point play from Nelson at the buzzer. In the third quarter alone, Roseville was outscored 18-3 and saw 24-19 lead wiped away to a 37-27 deficit. Roseville started slow chipping away at the lead in the fourth quarter until finally tying the score with 49 seconds to go with a basket by Calee Bookhart. A clutch three-pointer by Erin Hyman proved to be the game-winner. Roseville's Kira Cano made a two-point shot with 19 seconds remaining to make the score 44-43. Fayter hit a pair of free throws to make the final score 46-43. Fayter had an outstanding scoring night, as she led all players with 28 points. Lily Nelson finished with 10 for the Vikings. Leading Roseville was Bookhart, who finished with 17 points. Kira Cano scored nine points and Kalani Phan scored seven before leaving the game at the end of three quarters with an illness. Clearly, having their leading scorer in the fourth quarter would have helped Roseville. The 46-43 Oakmont victory improved the Vikings' record to 6-7. "I was happy with how hard the girls play how resilient they were," Oakmont coach Justin Garcia said. "They never gave up and kept fighting versus a very good Roseville team who's athletic and big and well coached. Our main three were on tonight. Fayter is our motor; Lily is our playmaker and Sophia Bodnar is our rebounder, If they are clicking like they were tonight, we're either going to be in the game or we will win the game." Perhaps Roseville (3-9) wouldn't have lost if Coach Justin Keller didn't have to prove a point in the third quarter when they were outscored 18-3. "I hate losing to Oakmont, but I needed to prove a point and had to do it in the third quarter," Keller said. "They came in a halftime saying so-and-so is doing this and so-and-so is doing that. I had never seen my team self-implode like that and attack each other. I sat down in the third quarter, and said, I'll do what you want; I'll play who you want and we'll see how that goes. We were outscored 18-3. "So the conversation was let me coach and let me do what I want and you worry about yourself, and then you see how we played in the fourth quarter. I think I got my point across. I hate losing to Oakmont but it was nice we came back on them. It definitely hurt not having Kalani in the fourth quarter from a ball control situation and because she's a high-percentage shooter." Roseville is off until Dec. 27, while Oakmont has home games remaining this week against Laguna Creek on Thursday and Rio Americano on Friday.