The Woodland Christian girls varsity basketball team’s season came to an end with a quarterfinals loss at Valley Christian Academy in the 2023 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division V Girls Basketball Playoffs.

The No. 2 Lions (23-3) defeated the No. 7 Cardinals (22-8) by 41 points on Thursday night in Roseville, 76-35. Woodland Christian advanced to the quarterfinals with a 36-24 win against No. 10 John Adams Academy in the first round on Valentine’s Day. VCA earned a first round bye as the second seed.

Cardinals head coach Shiloh Sorbello described the loss as a “whirlwind.”

“They came out really fast, a lot of energy,” Sorbello recalled. “We knew in our heads that’s what we were facing tonight but you can’t duplicate that in practice. They had size, speed, girls who could finish so that’s a better basketball team than we are. Props to them, they’re going to go deep. I hope they win the section title now so we can say we lost to the section champs.”

In what was ultimately her final game for Woodland Christian, senior Madeira Lang opened the scoring with a layup 85 seconds in. Lang converted another layup 72 seconds later and freshman Malaya Armstrong made a 3-pointer to give the Cardinals an early 7-2 lead with 4:10 left in the first quarter.

From that point on, things got ugly for Woodland Christian. The Lions went on a 13-0 run over the next two minutes, prompting a timeout from Sorbello. The run didn’t stop there.

VCA closed the first period on a 24-0 run over the final four plus minutes and led 26-7 after eight minutes of play. The Lions capitalized on several turnovers by the Cardinals.

Sophomore Allie Nguyen ended VCA’s run with a 3-pointer from the left corner 24 seconds in to the second quarter. She scored consecutive baskets with a layup 21 seconds later that cut Woodland Christian’s deficit to 14.

More turnovers from the Cardinals sparked another Lions’ run. VCA scored 15 straight points over the next three and a half minutes. The Lions outscored Woodland Christian 24-15 in the second period and led 50-22 at halftime.

“I came in thinking 20 points would probably be a good spread and we were down that at halftime, or more,” Sorbello explained. “At that point we said, ‘Hey let’s try to hold them under 80,’ and we did that. The reality is this is just a learning experience for these girls. We didn’t go to the locker room because we knew there was nothing I was going to say in the locker room that I couldn’t say right here on the bench. It’s a long walk to the locker room here.”

VCA doubled up Woodland Christian in the second half 26-13. The Lions outscored the Cardinals in the third period, 18-9, and led 68-31 with one quarter remaining. With a running clock, VCA won the fourth quarter 8-4 and went on to win the game 76-35.

Nguyen recorded a team-high 15 points on 5-of-10 from the field, 3-of-7 from 3-point range and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line with four rebounds and three assists. In her final game for Woodland Christian, Lang tallied seven points (2-7 FG, 3-4 FT), 11 rebounds (nine offensive), two assists and two steals.

Sorbello told the Cardinals that they “have nothing to be ashamed of,” and concluded the final huddle of the season with a prayer.

“You just want them to compete and support each other because the reality is these are all life lessons. In life you’re going to have challenges and you’re going to be in positions where it feels like lose-lose. But I feel like games like this are opportunities to turn losses into lessons. I’m going to miss these seniors, they are really good girls and have really bright futures. I just told them it’s an honor to coach them,” an emotional Sorbello said with tears in his eyes.

Woodland Christian has a “super young” team with only two seniors departing in the Class of 2023: Lang and Stella Paschke. Therefore, this postseason experience is “invaluable” for the nine girls who will be returning for next season and beyond.

“Being in these kind of environments and playing in games that actually mean something is invaluable,” Sorbello said. “There’s a lot of games during the course of the season where the outcome is never in doubt and we’re on the winning end. Playing really good teams, pushing ourselves, putting ourselves in environments where we know we have to fight to make it look like a basketball game instead of a track meet is really good for the girls.

“I think these younger girls, this is a game they’ll look back on next year and go, ‘That’s the level we need to get to.’ That’s a level of athleticism that we don’t have right now but we have girls that I think can get there by the time they’re seniors. They have a lot of basketball ahead of them.”