Girls basketball: Marin Academy advances past Piner
The senior dynamic duo of Lucy Robinson and Sterling Colpitts powered the Marin Academy girls basketball team to its first North Coast Section victory in four years on Wednesday night in the opening round of the Division IV tournament in San Rafael.
Playing against the frenetic Piner Prospectors from Santa Rosa, Robinson and Colpitts scored 10 points apiece to send the Wildcats to a 34-22 victory and a trip to the NCS second round.
The Wildcats, under first-year head coach Zach Wahle, had not advanced in NCS since 2022, meaning the seniors will make their quarterfinal debut when they play at St. Helena in Napa on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“It feels amazing that we got to break our streak,” said Robinson. “I’m very excited. It’s my senior year, and I don’t know how far we will go, but I hope we make it really far.”
Despite playing on the road on Saturday, No. 6-seeded Marin Academy (16-11) may have a slight advantage after surviving its NCS jitters. No. 3 St. Helena (18-6) won its first-round game when Livermore forfeited and will have not played in more than a week. (Livermore limped into the playoffs with nine losses in its final 11 games.)
The Wildcats will also benefit from needed reinforcements with the return of 6-foot Colpitts, who missed 17 games due to a knee injury.
“When teams want to zone us — when we have the two of them on the floor at the same time — you’ve got to pick your poison,” Wahle said of Robinson and Colpitts. “Sterling makes us a different team. I can point to the game that she returned as a turning point.”
The chemistry between Robinson and Colpitts was on full display in the fourth quarter when the Wildcats finally pulled away. Robinson scored off a nice feed from Colpitts to make it 24-19 with 5:39 left.
Then Colpiits scored following an assist from Robinson to push the lead to 26-19. Piner slipped in a three-pointer from Shaina Davenport before Robinson banked in a shot for a 28-22 edge. Robinson and Colpitts added the Wildcats’ final two baskets to account for 10 of their team’s 12 fourth-quarter points.
“Some people like to call us the dynamic duo,” said Robinson. “It’s great being able to play with her since she was injured for the majority of our season. We understand being a post. We move in parallel with each other.”
Since St. Helena coach Alisha Sommer didn’t have a game on Wednesday, she stopped by the MA gym to do a little scouting. Wahle joked that it was a good game for Sommer to see since his players weren’t at their finest.
“We got caught up in how they wanted to play, not how we wanted to play,” said Wahle. “It took us out of our rhythm. That’s a good game to get out of our system.”
No. 11 Piner (8-7) played without leading scorer Cambria Weerts, who missed the game with a concussion. The Prospectors were held to five fourth-quarter points when Robinson and Colpitts took charge.
Also playing well for the Wildcats were sophomore point guard Penelope Lee with seven points and defensive specialist Val Saeltzer with five.