Photo

Following the Cal Pac clinching win on Thursday night, the Lady Oaks (24-3, 10-0) had one final goal on their minds – going a perfect 10-0 in conference play by defeating Simpson (12-17, 7-3) on Saturday. The Lady Oaks did just that as they decisively defeated Simpson 60-38 for their 11th straight win and 10th consecutive conference win.

Simpson entered Saturday's game as the 2nd ranked team in the Cal Pac and came out in the first half and played the Lady Oaks close. Going in to the break, Menlo lead by just 4, 40-36.

In the second half, the Lady Oaks turned up the intensity on the defensive end. It resulted in 10 Simpson turnovers and a plethora of transitional baskets. Menlo also dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Red Hawks 60-38 including 22 offensive rebounds. The combination of defensive pressure and offensive rebounds proved to be the key to turning things around for Menlo in the second stanza.

"I thought Simpson came out and played a great first half and a really solid part of the minutes in the second. We turned it up on the defensive in and made better defensive choices and we got stops and were able to go on a run," said head coach Shannon Osborne.

Jolise Limcaco had one of her best offensive performances of the year in the win. Limcaco led all scorers with 20 points and also added 4 assists. The Lady Oaks were able to get a lot of baskets in transition coming off of turnovers. This was the key to the offensive success for Menlo according to Limcaco and Osborne.

"Transition was really helping us tonight and playing our own game. They put a lot of pressure on us but we were calm and collected," she said.

"Being able to stop them on the defensive end allows us to get out on transition and a lot of those offensive boards happened in transition. I thought it was really our defense that turned the table for us," agreed Osborne.

Four Lady Oaks scored in the double digits in the win including; Lauren Adamek with 17, Vanessa D'Amico with 10, and Sasha Brown with 10. In total, Menlo shot 45% from the field in the win.

The win puts an exclamation mark on the 2012-2013 regular season campaign for the Lady Oaks. They are now a perfect 10-0 in conference play and hold the coveted number one seed in next week's conference tournament. Knowing their success, Limcaco noted the importance of continuing to improve in the week leading up to Saturday's tournament game.

"We have a big target on our back, everyone wants to beat us so we just need to pick up our game and play our game," noted Limcaco.

— Menlo Athletics

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.