After a heartbreaking loss in what was the biggest game of their season this past Saturday in the section final, the Woodland Christian girls varsity basketball team bounced back like great teams do Tuesday night, defeating Fort Bragg 54-40 in the first round of the CIF State Basketball Championships.

If there is one silver lining to losing the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D5 final this past Saturday to Bret Harte, it’s that the Cardinals didn’t have to wait very long to get back on the court after what normally would have been their last game of the season. While hearts were undoubtedly still heavy inside of a packed Jack Hamlin Gym, by the time the opening tip came, all of that was forgotten for four quarters.

The Cardinals earned D5’s No. 2 seed on the Northern California side of the bracket while Fort Bragg earned the No. 15 seed. The Cardinals will host No. 7 seed Trinity this Thursday in their round-two matchup.

If they win, they would likely host No. 3 seed Head-Royce or No. 6 seed West Valley in the regional semifinals on Saturday. If they advance past that to the regional finals, they could meet D5 No. 1 seed Summit Shasta or No. 4 seed Encinial on March 11.

The state final will be played on March 14.

The Cardinals went up 15-12 in the first quarter and followed that up with an 11-7 second quarter to take a semi-comfortable 26-19 lead at halftime.

“We mixed up our defense more than we normally do because they were a big mismatch for us, being so bouncy and big,” Cardinals head coach Shiloh Sorbello said. “It gave us more reinforcements down low, and in the second half, we really cleaned up the defensive rebounds. We needed to tighten up, and we talked about it at halftime.”

With just over seven minutes to go in the third quarter, the Cardinals clung to a 29-33 lead. The score remained the same for about two minutes, mirroring a football game in terms of the sheer importance and caution that each team placed on every possession.

“They were really athletic, and our passing lane windows were smaller,” Sorbello said. “For us, it was great to see that athleticism because the teams only get tougher from here. The fun thing about state tournaments is that you end up playing teams that you see on MaxPreps but never get to see in live action.”

Back-to-back baskets from both teams preceded a massive Teagan Hayes 3-pointer that opened up a 34-25 lead, but that was then immediately followed by a Fort Bragg three.

Hayes finished with a modest 12 points, along with 9 rebounds and 3 assists.

A few minutes later, sophomore Sienna Sorbello stamped her mark on the game with six straight points to close the third quarter and open up a double-digit 40-29 lead.

Sorbello finished with 9 points and six rebounds.

Fellow Sophomore Bailee Broward kicked off the final quarter with back-to-back buckets to go up 44-29. Hayes followed that up a few possessions later with another 3-pointer to go up 47-31. Keziah Maldonado-Lemus then made a 3-pointer of her own to go up 50-31.

Maldonado-Lemus led the way for the Cardinals with 14 points, including four 3-pointers, to go with her stat-filling 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Broward finished with an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double.

With about 3:34 left in the game, the Cardinals nursed a 20-point lead that eventually settled at 14 as they made it out of the first round with the 54-40 win.

Elena Ganyo finished with 5 points, while Ellie Sumner finished with 3 points and 5 assists.

The Cardinals look to host Trinity on Thrusday at 5 p.m.

“I think we need to work on game speed shooting,” Sorbello said. “When you shoot in games, the windows are smaller, and it’s not like shooting in a workout. You are trying to get a shot up as someone is closing out. We’ll do some walk-through stuff and watch some of their film and get a lot of shots off.

“Trinity is ranked in the top 200 in the state. They are higher ranked than we are, even if we have the No. 2 seed.”