Danner shines down low

Tierney Danner knew her time to lead the Sage Hill School girls’ basketball team would come.

It can be expected when you’re a 5-foot-11 freshman on a small-school basketball team.

Back then, Danner was playing more on the perimeter. She didn’t have to play in the post, not with senior Haywood Wright dominating down low. Wright, the 6-foot-2, two-time Newport-Mesa Player of the Year who now plays for Yale, helped lead that 2006 team to the CIF Southern Section Division IV-A semifinals.

Two years later it’s Danner, now a junior, who will be trying to lead the Lightning to the CIF semifinals tonight in Inglewood. It’s a tall task, as No. 9-seeded Sage Hill (17-9) will be playing at top-seeded defending champion St. Mary’s Academy (22-7) in a CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA quarterfinal.

Don’t look for Danner to be intimated, though.

“We’re all just really pumped up the game,” she said. “We’re not really that intimidated. It’ll be a good one.”

A good one like Danner, who is averaging 17.9 points per game this season, which goes nicely with her 9.4 rebounds, 2.9 blocks and 2.3 steals. All four averages lead Sage Hill.

Coach Lou Silverman is impressed with the consistency of his forward-center, who has scored in double figures in 24 of 25 games this season and has 12 double-doubles.

“When teams are looking at Sage, they figure out first what they’re going to do with Tierney,” Silverman said. “One of the great things about her is that she’s maintained a very even demeanor. She’s gotten double-teamed, triple-teamed, fouled, clutched, grabbed, clawed and everything else. She just plays hard and plays the right way, and she’s not giving in to any of that stuff. That’s a tribute to her as a player, and equally important, a tribute to her as a person.”

Danner, one of the Lightning’s tri-captains along with senior guards Katie McKeon and Jordan Hidalgo, is as comfortable running in the fast-break game as she is playing half-court. Take Sage Hill’s CIF Division IV-AA second-round win over Liberty Christian on Saturday, for example.

Danner scored 15 of Sage Hill’s first 17 points, helping the Lightning earn a 53-39 victory over a team it had lost to earlier in the season.

“I just knew we had to push it from the beginning, because it was a big game,” Danner said. “We knew they would push the ball, because that’s kind of their game, so we knew we had to push it back and go even harder than them.”

And the Lightning were able to do that because of the versatile Danner.

“We noticed they put their post on her, so we ran a couple of plays where [Danner] started out on the wing, and we ran a couple of screens,” Silverman said. “She was able to use her quickness to get to the rim for open looks. Then Liberty had to switch to a smaller player, and that allowed us to take advantage of other parts of Tierney’s game, more inside stuff.”

Danner ended up with 28 points, her second-highest total of the season.

She knows, however, she can’t do it alone. Sophomore Hannah Jeffrey (8.5 rebounds per game) and junior Stephanie Garrison (7.9 rpg) have helped out down low.

“Hannah’s really strong on the boards and Stef’s just so aggressive,” Danner said. “They’re both amazing at rebounding.”

In fact, Sage Hill has always been about embracing the team. When Danner remembers last year’s second-round CIF loss to Calvary Chapel, it’s not the result alone that made her sad. It was the fact that it was senior Kaitlin Tyre’s last game with the team.

The team aspect is something that Danner enjoys, even in the high school off-season. She also plays club basketball with Cal Swish, the program directed by Vanguard University women’s coach Russ Davis.

Danner, Garrison and fellow junior Morgan Hembarsky all started out as freshmen on Sage Hill’s varsity.

“I think the games we’ve won are because we’ve really come together,” Danner said. “We’ve always been close, but we’ve definitely grown even more this season. That’s a big part of our game, that we’re all together no matter what.”

She also has her family behind her. Younger siblings T.J. and Maggie both play basketball. And Danner’s father, Mark, played for Brown University and was also a post player.

“His hook shot is his favorite move, so he wants me to do that all that time,” Danner said, starting to laugh.

But whatever move she chooses, Danner’s future remains bright, like the bright, red nail polish on her fingernails.

“Her agenda is the team’s agenda,” Silverman said. “She’s a great basketball player, but above that, she’s a great kid. She truly wants what’s best for the team, and is willing to do whatever it takes to help the team. If that means helping to bring the ball up against full-court pressure, she’ll do that. If it’s doing some of the hard work inside, she’ll do that. If it means going 32 minutes with no break, she’ll do that. She’s team first, and her second.

“That’s what coaches hope for, and she delivers that every day.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.