The Skyline women’s basketball team won the last conference game of the season 67-29 against Ohlone College on Feb. 14. The team had a first-place finish in the Coast-North with a no. 9 seed in the CCCAA NorCal State Playoffs.

This is the first conference championship in the team’s history. They will play against College of the Redwoods as playoffs’ opener on Friday, Feb. 29. This would be the first time that the two teams face off against each other in this season.

On the Redwood’s roster is freshman guard Ashley Quigley, who averages 17.6 points per game along with a 38.4 percent in three-pointers. Regarding this, Chris Watters, Skyline’s head coach, pointed out the freshman guard Jalene Parangan will be an important aspect of the defensive.

“I think that Jalene Paranganis is going to be an X factor defending against Redwoods’ best player,” Watters said. “They have a really good score.”

As Parangan will play her first playoffs’ game in her freshman year, she believes that her defense can stop Quigley on the offensive.

“What I’ve heard is that she’s a good shooter and a driver,” Parangan said. “She’s kind of shifty. But I feel like I’m a pretty good defender myself. I think I can lock her down. I just can’t give her open opportunities to shoot. I just have to mentally focus on the game and be ready to stop her from driving.“

After Nov. 16, Trojans’ sophomore guard Kalisi Fononga was injured and didn’t play for the rest of the season. However, freshman forward Nicole Brunicardi protected inside the paints, with an average of 12.2 points 10.9 rebound for this season.

“I think defensively, she’s done a good job,” Watters said. “Kalisi was great — probably our most active rebounder. And I think that Nicole stepping in has helped, keeping us a really efficient rebounding team. I think as far as rebounding efficiency and rebounding margin, we’re one of the best rebounding teams in the state. So, it was nice that we were able to maintain a high level, even after losing someone who’s potentially our most active rebounder.”

When asked about stepping in for Fononga, Brunicardi spoke about how she covered the position.

“We were going to have watched players in that position, so I knew I had to step up,” she said. “And it was an easy transition because of working with my teammates, and we knew what we’re supposed to do, and we accomplished that. I think we did a really good job executing at the end of the season. So that’s a really good confidence booster to go in the playoffs.”

When talking about the coming playoffs, Emilia Dougherty, freshman point guard, expressed the team chemistry has changed.

“Team chemistry is way better than it was in the beginning,” she said. “We’re learning how to pass the ball look opposite. I’m learning how to drive and kick out more, but it’s way better our chemistry has gotten tighter, not even just on the court. Like outside, we’re spending more time with each other getting to know each other more. So I think that all applies to the floor.”

However, regarding the coming playoffs, coach Watters explained the team’s advantage,

“I feel like our advantage in the playoffs is that we do have to post players who can score inside, and typically, at our level, if you have one player who can score around the basket, teams can adjust things in order to defend them, like helping from the perimeter or helping with another post player,” Watters said. “But when you have two who can score from the inside, and it changes the way teams have to defend, so I feel like our strength on Friday is going to be our ability to score from the post.”