Nicole Rianda hit a different level of play in the middle of the
season, and used it to help carry the San Benito girls’ basketball
team to the Division I quarterfinals
HOLLISTER
There is usually a point during the offseason when a role player from the previous year develops into a veteran presence, a team’s go-to scoring option or simply a leader that is looked upon to make that one final shot.
Although San Benito senior forward Nicole Rianda could be tied to all of those roles for the Baler girls’ basketball team this past season, aided in part by her offseason training with her summer league team and open gymnasium workouts, the argument could be made that she took those roles to an entirely different level in the middle of one particular game, then continued to play at that high level for the remainder of the season.
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It’s not too often one sees the complete maturation of a player over the course of a 32-minute basketball game. But those who witnessed San Benito’s game at North Salinas on Jan. 27 saw Rianda find another gear that even she didn’t know existed.
And she never let it go.
“I got so much confidence from that game. Before, I guess I was kind of afraid, to play so good one day and not be able to live up to the expectations after that,” she said. “But after North Salinas, I just learned to leave it on the court. I wanted the ball in those situations when the game was on the line.
“I was pretty much playing fearless through the second half of the season.”
And the numbers reflect as much. Although she led the Balers in scoring with a little more than 11 points per game this past winter, which led to her earning a first team all-league selection in the Tri-County Athletic League and being named San Benito’s Most Valuable Player, Rianda pocketed nearly 17 points per game following her breakout performance at North Salinas, and as a result was named the Free Lance/Pinnacle’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete of the Winter.
She was a veteran presence for the Balers, the team’s go-to scoring option, and very much the leader that wanted the ball when the game was on the line.
“When we needed the big shot, we went to her,” said San Benito head coach David Kaplansky, whose Balers compiled an 8-4 record in the TCAL this season, 17-9 overall en route to an appearance in the CCS Division I quarterfinals.
“What made her a good threat this year was that her game became more diverse,” Kaplansky added. “She was able to pretty much score from three different areas — from 3-point (range), mid-range and from the block. She gained a lot of confidence after that fourth quarter against North High and that assisted her the rest of the year.
“But the great thing about Nicole was that she stayed consistent for those (remaining) games. She never went back. She went forward from then on.”
That’s not to say the Baler big was a pushover for the first half of the season; far from it, in fact. Dropping 19 points on MTAL champion Carmel in just the fourth game of the season, Rianda’s paint presence translated into a season-high 21-point performance against Aptos just two games later.
She was an all-tournament selection at the Wildcatz Invitational during the non-conference slate, averaging nearly 13 points per game while helping to lead the Balers to the tourney championship.
She also led the team in field goals and free throws, and as a sign of her increased presence from both the inside and outside, Rianda finished third on the team from behind the arc, even though she didn’t knock down her first trey until 19 games into the season — a number that just so happens to coincide with her breakout performance at North High.
“At that time of the year, the ball wasn’t going in for a lot of our players,” Kaplansky said. “I think she wanted to put the team on her shoulders. She wanted to take it upon herself to make the shots we weren’t making.
“When we needed scoring, she pulled her weight.”
Averaging a little more than five points per game for the Balers last season, Rianda’s improvement from a year ago began in the summer months when she noticed her increased role following the departure of Baler center and 2010 TCAL MVP Victoria Aguilera.
It wasn’t until she played in a couple of exhibition games with a summer-league team from Santa Cruz that Rianda’s confidence began to blossom, though, and a noticeable shift in her game began to develop. There was something about playing for a different team with different players and a different coach, and performing under a different system, that sparked a newfound level of confidence in Rianda.
After all, just about everything was different, but the 5-foot-10 post player’s ability still translated.
“I got a different feel for the game,” she said.
That different feel didn’t necessarily squash any of the pressures she felt trying to fill the shoes of Aguilera, however. Rianda was trying to fit the role of a “post player,” instead of playing relaxed and free of some prescribed identity.
Prior to the North Salinas game on Jan. 27, Rianda and teammate Erin Glasspool were shooting baskets, when Glasspool, the team’s leading 3-point shooter the last two years, noticed Rianda’s ability from long range.
“She was like, ‘Yeah Nicole, you could totally hit the 3,'” Rianda recalled. “We kept backing up, and I kept making them.”
Against North Salinas, after starting the game 0 of 11, Rianda’s season took a 180. She finished 8 of 12 from the field, scored 18 of San Benito’s final 21 points of the game, and hit two 3-pointers, including the game-tying trey with six seconds left that sent the contest to overtime — the singular moment that Rianda said she’ll remember forever.
“I tried it and it worked, and it showed me a whole different part of my game that I had never experienced before,” Rianda said.
Kaplansky even adapted the offensive play-calling to create more sets for Rianda.
“It was evident in practice that she had more confidence,” he said. “She seemed to really want the ball.”
Following North High, Rianda tied her season-high with 21 points against league champ Gilroy, scored 20 of San Benito’s 47 points against Alisal, and deposited 16 points against Carlmont in the CCS Division I second round.
Her game became complete, Kaplansky said.
Whatever clicked in the fourth quarter against North High, the graduating senior will now take to Foothill College in Los Altos next winter.
“Coach Kap wants his players to want the big moment,” Rianda said. “I feel like I finally got there at the end of the season.”
See next week’s edition of the Free Lance to see who is named the Most Outstanding Male Athlete of the Winter.
