Girls Basketball tournament wrap-up: Irish girls win Sweet 16
In a bit of an upset in what most analysts felt was the top early-season tournament in California based on the overall field, it was defending CIF Division III champion Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco (4-0) taking down Mission Hills-San Marcos, 78-75 in overtime to win the 14th annual La Jolla Country Day Sweet 16 Invitational last Saturday in La Jolla.
The victory for the Cal-Hi Sports pre-season No. 9 ranked Irish girls over the No. 6 Grizzlies was in Sacred Heart Cathedral’s first-ever appearance in the tournament and the first time Sacred Heart Cathedral has played in the San Diego area anyone can remember but at least since Coach LyRyan Russell took the helm in the 2012-13 season.
While everyone has been talking about pre-season No. 1 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose the Irish have stamped themselves as a top team and will almost assuredly move up in the next Cal-Hi Sports rankings and should look very good in the first Maxpreps power rankings due out soon as well.
“It was very important to get off to a good start and doing it on the road against top competition in a field with La Jolla Country, Mission Hills, Pinewood and top teams from Colorado and Arizona was awesome,” Russell told Prep2Prep. “The girls wanted to prove we belong as one of the top teams in the state.”
The biggest buzz at the Sweet 16 was about Sacred Heart Cathedral’s Cincinnati-bound star IImar’I Thomas. The 6-1 senior that can play any position on the floor and plays them all well, was unstoppable all tournament. She capped it off by capturing the MVP award after going for a huge double-double 30 points and 13 rebounds in the title-game victory. For the tournament Thomas had all double-doubles. She opened up with a 30-point, 22-rebound effort against Helix-La Mesa, followed with 27 points and 18 rebounds versus Mater Dei Catholic-Chula Vista, and in the semis she had 15 points and 16 rebounds against Lakewood, Colorado. That translates into 25.5 points and 17.25 rebounds per game averages to start the season.
Thomas got the hardware but according to Russell it took a team effort to get past a very solid group of Mission Hills girls led by Washington-bound 6-1 senior Khayla Rooks.
The Irish trailed 35-27 at the half but an 18-0 run got them up by 10 before Mission Hills fought back with an 8-o run of its own to cut it to a 54-53 Irish lead entering the fourth quarter.
The final stanza was back and forth. After All Tournament selections Edina del Rosario (10 points) and Errayanna Hatfield both fouled out Mission Hills took a 2-point lead with a minute left in regulation.
From there Thomas hit a pair of free-throws with 25 seconds left and after Mission Hills could not convert and the Irish had one rattle out at the buzzer it went to overtime with the teams tied 68-68.
With Russell not having juniors del Rosario and Hatfield to help Thomas down the stretch he needed someone to step up and that girl was junior guard Yaniah Fleming.
With the Irish down one point with a minute left in OT Fleming hit a 3-pointer to give SHC a 74-72 lead. Thomas then hit a pair of free-throws to give the Irish a 76-72 lead before a pair of free-throws by Rooks trimmed it to 76-74.
To Russell’s chagrin Sacred Heart Cathedral turned the ball over with 15 seconds remaining and they had to foul Rooks who made one of two free-throws to cut it to 76-75.
With six seconds remaining Fleming was fouled and she calmly dropped in the final two of her 14 points (three 3-pointers) in the game.
Another girl Russell felt stepped up was Rainah Smith. The junior wing had back-to-back conventional 3-point plays to help ignite the big third quarter run. Smith finished with 10 points.
For Mission Hills (4-1) the story was a balanced attack but it was not quite enough. Rooks finished with a double 18 points and 12 rebounds, Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills transfer and junior Hailey McCoy added 16 points. Both were named All Tournament.
Two other girls in double-figure scoring were Olivia Perez and Katelyn Nguyen with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Things don’t get any easier for defending CIF Division III champion Sacred Heart Cathedral. Next Saturday they face Cal-Hi pre-season No. 4 St. Mary’s in Stockton. In two weeks they host defending CIF Division IV champion Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa, and then they play in the Platinum Division of the West Coast Jamboree where both St. Mary’s and Cardinal Newman are also in the field.
St. Mary’s just defeated pre-season No. 17 Cardinal Newman, 74-55, in the Cardinals Classic on Saturday in Santa Rosa.
The road ahead is tough but right now the girls and Thomas in particular are basking after their showing in La Jolla.
“It was an amazing experience to be able to play good competition and do well in a place where we didn’t really know anyone and they didn’t know much about us,” Thomas said. “It’s always a good feeling having people you never met before walk up to you and say ‘wow I love your game and can't wait to see more.”
Host Clovis West routs field in Nike Central Valley Showdown
The Cal-Hi preseason No. 3 Clovis West Golden Eagles had little trouble in their Nike Central Valley Showdown after a 79-44 title-game victory over a pre-season No. 22 Carondelet-Concord team that dismantled pre-season No. 12 Oak Ridge in a 63-41 semifinal victory.
Clovis West (5-0) got to the title game with a 92-19 win over Centennial-Bakersfield in the opening game, followed that up with an 83-35 shellacking of Brookside Christian-Stockton, and then beat Valley Christian-San Jose 66-38 in the semifinals.
San Jose State-bound senior guard Danae Marquez was named the MVP after scoring 23 points with seven 3-pointers against Carondelet, however like the other top teams in the state Coach Craig Campbell has a multitude of players at his disposal.
UC Santa Barbara-bound senior guard Sarah Bates, Arizona-committed senior Bre’yanna Sanders, San Jose State-bound senior Megan Anderson, Boise State-committed senior transfer Tess Amundsen, and the coach’s daughter and sophomore Maddie Campbell, all can be the top player in any given game.
Amundsen had 17 points and Anderson 10 points against Carondelet. In the Valley Christian win Sanders had 17 points and Amundsen had 10 points.
“It changes from game to game,” Campbell remarked. “One game it was Danae and Sarah, one game it was Megan and Maddie, one game it was Danae and Bre and one game it was Danae and Tess. With this team within the course of our season they will rotate between those six kids that will average between nine and 15 points.”
Another thing that makes Clovis West so tough is their outside game is very strong. According to Campbell the Golden Eagles broke the school’s old 3-point record for a game of 16 twice in the tournament. They had 17 against Centennial and 18 in the Carondelet victory.
The team was scheduled to leave Monday morning for Hawaii and the Iolani tournament where Archbishop Mitty-San Jose, Long Beach Poly-Long Beach and Salesian-Richmond are all in the field and all are in the top five of the Cal-Hi Sports pre-season rankings.
Carondelet (4-1) was led in scoring in the title game by 5-10 senior wing Brianna Simonich with 13 points. Sophomore 6-3 post Ali Bamberger added nine points. Simonich, senior 6-0 forward Michaela VanderKlugt, and 5-10 junior forward Maaeva Dwiggins were selected all-tournament.
Harvard-Westlake takes second tournament title with win over Windward
Because Harvard-Westlake was so young last year there was a question coming into this season of how good would be they be, and how well would they play to start the season competing in both the Palisades Beach Invitational and the Redondo Union Tournament. The answer is an 8-0 record after Coach Melissa Hearlihy and her girls won both of them.
The Wolverines opened the season by winning the Palisades tournament with only six players when they defeated Fairmont Prep-Anaheim 48-45 in the title game.
This past weekend Hearlihy had seven players and needed them all in what was a slightly stronger field at the Redondo event.
Harvard-Westlake defeated Mater Dei-Santa Ana 53-25 in the semifinals and took down Windward-Los Angeles in the title game, 44-37.
“I had two starters hurt the first week and had to bring up a JV player and an inexperienced senior, and both played in the semis and finals of the Palisades tournament and the first two games of Redondo,” said Hearlihy, the 2010 Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year when she led the Wolverines to the CIF Division IV state championship and a 34-1 record with a lone loss to a state and national No. 1 Mater Dei.
Fortunately for Hearlihy and the Wolverines faithful the injured players did not include the Rufus-milner twins, 5-11 juniors Jayla Rufus-milner and Jayda Rufus-Milner. Jayla Ruffus-milner finished with the tournament’s MVP award and 11 points, while Jayda Ruffus-milner had a team-high 13 points.
One of the players that was out and came back to play an important factor in the title game at Redondo is 5-10 junior Melanie Hirsch. She had nine points on three 3-pointers with two critical treys in the fourth quarter.
Cal-Hi Sports State Freshman of the Year Charisma Osborne of Windward (3-2) led all scorers in the title game at Redondo with 17 points.
What was a young Harvard-Westlake team last year is still young with the core of the team now juniors and it centers on the twins, who not only can play some basketball, but are 4.0 students at a very challenging academic school.
“The twins are just so positive. They’re absolutely wonderful kids,” Hearlihy said. “When your best players are the hardest working kids on the team it’s infectious.”
“What’s different about this team than any other team I’ve coached is they just want to win,” continued Hearlihy. “The chemistry is perfect.”
It will need to be almost more than perfect since Harvard-Westlake in all likelihood is going to be in the CIF Southern Section Open Division this year.
Harvard-Westlake has an upcoming game with a solid Ventura team and then heads to Washington D.C. for the Title IX tournament.