State No. 1 Giants steamroll Hartnell behind Medina's triple-double to improve to 12-0

By Nick Giannandrea

COS ATHLETICS

Jocelyn Medina was a second-team All-Northern California selection for a Butte College women's basketball team that went 30-2 and reached the state semifinals last season.

She may well be the state's Most Valuable Player this season for state No. 1-ranked and undefeated College of the Sequoias, which received a triple-double from Medina during a 115-54 nonconference shellacking of Hartnell on Dec. 12 at Porter Field House.

At least according to the man who has coached the 5-foot-6 sophomore guard out of Pierce High in Arbuckle – a small town of roughly 3,000 located 50 miles north of Sacramento – the last two seasons.

"I think she has an argument for Player of the Year, honestly," said first season Giants coach Tyler Newton, who spent the previous seven seasons at Butte. "She's increased her game from last year to this year tremendously. She's always been a player who could score. But, you know, she worked hard in the weight room. She just really expanded her game. She's a hooper through and through, and a winner."

Medina finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. She flirted with a quadruple double – which, for context, has only been achieved four times in NCAA Division I women's basketball history, once in NCAA Division I men's history and four times in NBA history – with six steals. Her steals total likely would have been higher had she not played only 21 of a possible 40 minutes while Newton gave time to his eight-woman bench with Sequoias holding a commanding lead.

Medina is 33rd in the state in scoring (17.2 points per game), 61st in rebounding (8.3 per game), fourth in assists (5.7 per game) and 74th in steals (2.6 per game) despite averaging just 23.2 minutes per game for a team off to a state-best 12-0 start. The only other undefeated team in the state is No. 7 Sierra at 5-0.

"One thing that I think goes unnoticed a little, but if you look at our three starting guards, (Morgan Trigueiro), (Medina) and (Campbell Vieg), they play like 20 minutes, 21 minutes a game in most games because of our scoring, and I'm trying to play our bench. A lot of people around the state have these kids that play 30, 35 minutes a game, and their numbers look great. And our girls never say anything about it. I know if we played our girls a lot of those minutes that their numbers would be outrageous. But credit to them, they don't care who gets what. We just want to win basketball games."

Medina had 14 points, seven assists, six rebounds and five steals during a first half that saw the Giants steamroll to a 65-30 lead. She grabbed her 10th rebound with 52 seconds left in the third quarter, picked up her 10th assist with 8:07 remaining in the fourth quarter when she fed a Vieg layup, then left the game for the final time with 5:54 to play and Sequoias' leading 101-53.

Medina – who transferred from Butte to Sequoias, along with Trigueiro and Vieg, to continue playing for Newton and assistants Justin Schneringer and Annie Ward –  made 7 of 12 shots, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and sank both of her free throws to lead an effort that saw the Giants shoot 55.4 percent (46 of 83) from the field and 42.4 percent (14 of 33) from 3-point range.

"It's very special, but I wouldn't be able to do without any of my teammates," Medina said of her triple-double. "Like we ride for one another. So I mean, yeah, it's my accomplishment, but it's definitely a team effort."

Playing for the first time since a 77-76 victory over state No. 2-ranked Mt. San Antonio during the final of the 47th annual Gilcrest Invitational on Dec. 7, Sequoias got off to a slow start against unranked Hartnell (7-7), trailing 12-10 at the 5:20 mark of the first quarter.

But a 3-pointer by Medina 10 seconds later gave the Giants a 13-12 lead, and they never trailed again.

Sequoias would steadily grow its lead the rest of the way, pushing its advantage to nine points (28-19) by the end of the first quarter, to 35 points at halftime (65-30), to 40 points (89-49) at the end of the third quarter, and to a high of 61 points on a basket by Emily Pallesi (Reedley High) to close the scoring with 46 seconds remaining.

It was a much easier time for the Butte imports than the last time they saw Hartnell, as the top-seeded Roadrunners couldn't put away the 16th-seeded Panthers until the fourth quarter of a 81-57 win in the second round of last season's Northern California Regional playoffs. Hartnell trailed by three points (39-36) at halftime and by nine (59-50) through three quarters.

"I'm very pleased with the way we played," Newton said. "Hartnell is a team we have history with. They gave us a scare last year and played us really tough. I've been following them this season and they've had some injuries, so they've lost some games they probably should have won. But when they are fully healthy, they've played some good teams (such as No.  8 San Joaquin Delta) and won. And they were fully healthy today. We didn't want to show up like we had it. We wanted to show up and win. So we had that championship focus and executed. Everybody played for each other and we shot it well. It was fun to watch."

Trigueiro (Caruthers High) led the Giants in scoring with 25 points, to go along with four rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Vieg (Chico) also topped the 20-point mark, finishing with 24 along with five assists, two rebounds, two steals and a block.

The Giants starting five also saw Olivia Gill (Woodland) deliver eight points, 10 rebounds and a steal; and Lucia Ricci (Seattle) post five points, six rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block.

Anisa Torres (Caruthers) paced Sequoias' reserves with 13 points, a rebound and an assist.

Also contributing were Kaitlin Giacone (Eureka) with six points, three rebounds, three assists and two blocks;

Mallary Gonzalez (Hoover-Fresno) with five points, five rebounds and two blocks; Maya McNeal (Marysville) with four points and three rebounds; Pallesi with two points and two assists; Jacalyn Gorbet (Crescent City) with two points and a rebound; Tylie Hatcher (Cloverdale) with five assists, two rebounds, two steals and a block; and Teresa Sandoval (Hanford West) with four rebounds and two assists.

"We definitely came in here knowing that they were going to put up a fight," Medina said. "But once we saw that, like our foot was on the pedal and it never came off. I'm super proud of the girls that came off the bench and shared the ball well and knew what they were doing and played with confidence."

Sequoias returns to Porter Field House at 3 p.m. Dec. 14 to host unranked Canyons (3-6).

The Giants will then close their nonconference schedule at the Moorpark Tournament,  on Dec. 19-21, where they are slated to face No. 5 Moorpark (7-3), No. 3 and two-time reigning state champ Orange Coast (9-2) and No. 14 Palomar (6-3).

Sequoias opens Central Valley Conference play at 5 p.m. Jan. 8 at Taft (9-3).

"I think we're getting better," Newton said. "We're chipping away at some things I'm seeing in games, things we're working on in practice. It's coming along slowly but surely."