In a hard-fought game against the Raiders, the Sunny Hills girls basketball team lost to Sonora 53-36 Wednesday when the Raiders pulled away late in the second half.

“Sonora was just bigger, stronger and more physical than we were, and we weren’t ready for that,” head girls basketball coach Jae Byun said. 

Sonora (8-3, 3-0) got off an early lead, scoring the first two points off a layup fromguard senior Haylie Dermer within 30 seconds of the game. The Lady Lancers (4-7, 1-2) added two more points by the end of the first quarter on free-throw shots coming from guard junior Jessica Kim. However, the Sonora offense picked up with multiple fast breaks and three-pointers, ending the first quarter up 13-4. 

“We weren’t being too smart with our passing, so it would get picked off,” Kim said. “Offensively, we got good looks, but we could’ve made some more shots.”

In the second quarter, however, the Lady Lancers began to cut into the lead, first on a three-point shot coming from guard freshman Taylor Parra within 20 seconds of the quarter starting. 

On the other side of the floor, the Sunny Hills defense kept the Raiders’ offense at bay for much of the second quarter all the way until a 16-all tie with just over three minutes left in the half. Sonora finished the half on a 10-4 run and would head into halftime with a 26-20 lead.

While Sunny Hills fought through the third and fourth quarters adding 10 points to its score, the Lady Lancer defense could no longer hold off the Raiders in the second half as Sonora racked up 27 more points. 

Coming out of halftime, the Raider attack overwhelmed the Lady Lancers, outscoring Sunny Hills 27-10; by the time the clock showed double zeroes, Sonora walked away with a 53-36 victory.

In the fourth quarter, center junior Elizabeth Rosenkranz and point guard freshman Erin Choi contributed to the final four points for Sunny Hills.

“The biggest hurdle was them pressing us full court,” said Choi, who was the top scorer for the Lancers with 13 points. “They scored a lot of threes because they were able to make it further out, which threw us off.”

The Lady Lancers will take on Fullerton (0-3, 0-2) in an away game tomorrow at 7.

“On Friday, we need to be locked in, ready to fight and be aggressive both on offense and defense,” Choi said. 

Despite the loss, Byun is optimistic and looks forward to working with his team going forward to improve their skills.

“We’re going to try to get these games under our belt; we’re young [since] we have four first-year varsity girls, so they need to learn by experience,” the head coach said. “Sometimes the best way to learn not to turn over the ball is to turn it over a couple of times.”