OAKLAND, CA – In its season opener the bottom line for Archbishop Mitty is it was way too of the Monarchs backcourt duo of senior Karisma Ortiz and junior Haley Jones in a very impressive 86-52 win over host Bishop O’Dowd. So decisive was the victory that at one point in the fourth quarter the game came within a point of going to a running clock even after Mitty Coach Sue Phillips emptied the bench.
The Penn State-bound Ortiz was a rebound away from a triple-double after finishing with 25 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. Jones, the Cal-Hi Sports State Sophomore of the Year and the ESPNW No. 1 rated wing and No. 5 ranked junior in the nation overall, had a monster double-double 24 points and 15 rebounds with six blocks, four assists and two steals.
Mitty (1-0) trailed only once at 4-3 but after freshman guard Hunter Hernandez (six points) hit the second of two early 3-pointers the Monarchs had a 6-4 lead they never relinquished.
The Maxpreps Xcellent 25 No. 5 national and Cal-Hi Sports No. 2 state ranked Monarchs extended a 22-13 first quarter lead and held off an O’Dowd team that kept it close at 37-29 in the second quarter before the dam broke from there with Mitty leading 46-33 at the half and 57-33 before O’Dowd finally scored in the second half with 4:24 left in the third quarter.
Besides Ortiz and Jones, Mitty Coach Sue Phillips got an excellent outing from 6-2 senior University of San Diego-bound post Nicole Blakes. She finished with 15 points, six rebounds and six blocks, and was 7-of-7 from the free-thrown line. Senior guard Krissy Miyahara added nine points on three 3-pointers and also had four rebounds.
As a team the Monarchs outrebounded the Dragons 42-21 and they had 19 assisted baskets to six for O’Dowd.
“We didn’t take this game lightly,” said Mitty Coach Sue Phillips. “We’re playing this game in November for March because O’Dowd is a good team that will be in the conversation for seeding implications.”
There is no question O’Dowd (1-1) is a good team although they are very young. They opened with a win over San Francisco Lowell but in their foundation game the Cal-Hi-Sports No. 14 ranked Dragons did pretty much the same thing to preseason No. 7 Carondelet (Concord) that Mitty did to them.
Jada Holland, a bulldog-type junior guard led O'Dowd with 11 points and three assists. Zakiya Mahoney, a 5-9 guard that plays a lot down low and is one of only two seniors on the 14-players roster, played hard all game but could only manage six points with eight rebounds and three steals.
“We didn’t play our best game and Mitty did what they had to do,” said O’Dowd Coach Malik McCord. “The positive from this game is the girls aren’t down, and with the talent we have and our youth we can get to that level of Mitty.”
What’s clear at this point is its pretty obvious Jones and Ortiz or Ortiz and Jones, depending on the stats of a particular game, are going to be hard to stop by any California team. They are clearly the class of the Platinum Division of the West Coast Jamboree but prior to that Phillips and her girls will likely be tested in the top division of the Nike TOC. Before leaving for Phoenix the Monarchs have a game at Sacramento, a home game with St. Mary’s-Berkeley, and then Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills at the Laney College Elite Showcase and then McClatchy at the Presentation Shootout in San Jose.
“I’m really pleased with our fitness level right now,” Phillips remarked and continued. “And we showed great discipline defensively in the second half. We can score but keys will be controlling the boards like we did tonight and taking care of the ball.”
What’s a little scary is despite her big numbers Jones did not have her best game, although she was never not double-teamed. She missed several easy shots and her first three free-throws to finish 6-of-10 from the line.
As for O’Dowd they have to re-group and get ready for a game at Cal-Hi Sports preseason No. 3 Pinewood and then St. Ignatius at the Presentation Shootout.
“That’s exactly why I scheduled these tough games early so we can improve,” replied McCord when asked if getting better means playing the best.
O’Dowd is also in the Nike TOC and West Coast Jamboree with the divisions they’ll be playing in still not known.
