Falcons hope for strong finish to season

After making it to the Elite 8 the last two years and falling short of a CCCAA state championship, Folsom Lake College's women's basketball team hopes to go all the way this season. The Falcons have a record of 21-2 with five games remaining this season, including Tuesday's game against Santa Rosa and Friday's game against Sierra College, both at home. The team's remaining games are then at Diablo Valley on Feb. 10, at home against American River College on Feb. 17 and then on the road at Delta on Feb. 20, the team that handed them one of their two losses. That game could be and likely will be played with the conference championship on the line. "That will be an interesting game," Folsom Lake College head coach Ali Mollet said. "We played them here last year in the final game of the season with the winner winning the conference championship and they beat us. This year the scenario is flipped so hopefully we can beat them at their place. "In our previous game, we dug ourselves a hole and trailed by 23 points in the second quarter. Once we figured it out, we chipped away and were the better team the last 30 minutes of the game but ran out of time." That game, of course, was an anomaly. The Falcons are ranked second in the state and are one of the favorites in the playoffs. Mollet, in her seventh season, has built a strong program. "We have an awesome culture and that's the No. 1 thing that makes us good," Mollet said. "I've got a great group of girls who all love it here. They love to work and they love basketball and that part makes it fun. It's not like work; the girls come in and have a good time. "We're always one of the most unselfish teams. We share the ball and get everyone involved. We're very detailed. We play fast, but we're very particular in what we do. Everyone has a job; everyone has got their spots to get to so we put all those things together and it all works out." The Falcons are good because they can win in multiple ways. They love to run the court and beat a lot of teams that way, but they can also run a nasty half-court offense and beat teams that way. The Falcons are currently second in the state in shooting percentage, as they make 47 percent of their shots. "We emphasize shooting good shots," Mollet said. "We've got great inside presence, great point guards, great shooters; we have all the right pieces. We play fast, intense, up tempo defense and on offense we get out and go, but if it's not there we can slow it down and execute our half-court offense. We've got good balance that way. I think that's what makes us different from a lot of teams. To do both, that makes it tough." The team has three Folsom-area players that all play big roles on the team. Freshman Jada Tupou, a 2025 graduate of Folsom High, is one the team's guards and leads the team in scoring, averaging just under 16 points per game. Incredibly, Tupou leads the entire nation in field goal percentage, as she's making 68 percent of her shots. "Jada is super effective around the basket," Molet said. "We isolate her in the high post and her teammates are doing a good job finding her. She's a great finisher around the hoop; she can jump out of the gym, and that's not even her best quality. Her on ball defense is crazy, as she makes things miserable for the point guards on the other team." Ursula Chen, a sophomore, is a 2024 graduate of Vista del Lago and starts at guard for the Falcons. "Ursula is doing a great job," Mollet said. "I believe she leads us in three-point shooting and she's also got a crazy pull-up mid-range game, so she's really tough to guard. She's always getting to the right spots. If you're trying to take away the three, she can drive by you and hit the pull-up. She's had some really good games for us." Ava Schraeder, a freshman who graduated from Oak Ridge a year ago, is one of the first players off the bench for the Falcons. "Ava's been doing a great job for us," Mollet said. "She's physical and strong and does a great job rebounding. She leads us on the defensive boards. Ava is a very fundamental player. She's a utility player because she does a lot of good things for us. She can get by her player offensively and that starts the dominoes for us offensively." The Falcons had 12 players on the team and Mollet tries to keep them all involved and does a good job of it. Every player on the team is averaging at least 10 minutes of court time per game. If the Falcons can win their next four games, it will set up a rematch with Delta in the final game of the regular season to decide the conference champion. Playoffs start the following week and the Falcons will be aiming high. "We will have a bye and then should get at least one home game and hopefully two," Mollet said. "After that is the Elite 8, which will be held at the College of Sequoias in Visalia. "For us, the key will be staying in the moment. It's a long season and it's easy to get distracted and put your full focus into every moment. We've been talking about that a lot lately, about staying in the moment. I think if we play our basketball and show up and be in the moment then we've got a good chance."