Photos: Thrill of victory and agony of defeat in CIF State Basketball Championships

By the end of Oakland Tech’s 79-55 CIF Division II state championship victory against Centennial, the school’s trademark “O-T, Ohhhhhh-Teeeee” chants echoed throughout the building.

Oakland Tech was the last of three Oakland schools to participate in Sacramento. The Oakland girls won the Division V title, while Bishop O’Dowd girls lost to Bishop Montgomery-Torrance 52-40.

“”In the city of Oakland, we’ve had a lot of rough times,” Tech boy’s coach Karega Hart said. “To be able to celebrate and shine a positive light on the city (means a lot), because there are a lot of good things going on in the city.”

In other state title games, Harvard-Westlake defeated Salesian 50-45 to repeat as the California Open Division champions. Salesian ends its season 31-2, firmly entrenched among the pantheon of great units Bill Mellis has coached in 26 years at the Richmond powerhouse.

In an upset victory, Archbishop Mitty, ranked No. 1 in the country since December, came up short against defending champ Etiwanda in its bid for a first Open state title.

Etiwanda took control in the first quarter, suffocating Archbishop Mitty with a matchup zone that kept the San Jose school’s best players from having any impact, and did not let up until the lead widened to 24.

When it was over, the Eagles celebrated a second consecutive California Interscholastic Federation Open Division state championship, beating previously undefeated Mitty 60-48 at Golden 1 Center. The loss was a crusher for the San Jose school, which fell to 0-4 in Open Division state finals.

The Knights slayed Dragons as Bishop Montgomery held off the Bishop O’Dowd girls in the D-I championship. O’Dowd mounted a spirited rally, but fell short against Bishop Montgomery-Torrance.