Thursday high school sports report: In rematch of CCS Open final, Mitty boys beat Riordan again
No. 1 Carondelet girls keep rolling in advance of Sabrina Ionescu Showcase; Liberty hopes to hire a new football coach well before spring ball.
Boys basketball
Archbishop Mitty improved to 4-0 in the West Catholic Athletic League boys basketball standings Wednesday night with a barrage of 3-pointers in a 56-46 road win over Archbishop Riordan.
The Monarchs, 11-3 overall and ranked No. 2 in the Bay Area News Group’s top 20, nailed 12 3-point shots, all by members of the starting five.
Riordan (8-5, 2-1), which lost to Mitty in the Central Coast Section Open Division final last spring, had six 3-point baskets.
Aidan Burke led the way with 20 points for Mitty, 17 of those in the second half. Jaiden Paran had 11 points.
Riordan is 10th in this week’s BANG rankings.
Seventh-ranked Serra, which opened WCAL play by winning three in a row, was hammered by St. Francis 61-38. The Padres have now lost their last two league games and sit at 10-4 overall.
St. Francis broke out of a 1-3 skid in league play with the one-sided win.
MORE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
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- How a former UCLA star has turned around Valley Christian
- No plans to pause winter sports during COVID surge
In other WCAL action, Sacred Heart Cathedral outlasted Valley Christian 74-65 and St. Ignatius routed Bellarmine 57-31. The Bells fell to 0-5 in the WCAL.
De La Salle 58, Dublin 51
For three quarters, No. 6 De La Salle did just about anything it wanted against 11th-ranked Dublin. The Spartans (12-4) led the visitors 48-25 heading to the fourth quarter.
But the talented Gaels (9-4) threw a bit of a scare into De La Salle, closing to within single digits in the final minute.
De La Salle did most of its damage in the second and third quarters, outscoring Dublin 31-12 in those two periods. The Gaels were held to three free throws in the third quarter.
Javon Johnson had 15 points for the Spartans, and Jordan Webster had 13, all in the second half.
Dublin’s scoring leaders were Courtney Anderson Jr. with 12 points and Donovan Cooks with 11.
Elsewhere
No. 4 Dougherty Valley (15-1) continued to roll with a 68-53 East Bay Athletic League victory over California (9-6). The Wildcats led by a point at the half, then outscored Cal 37-23 after intermission. … Moreau Catholic, which is ranked 15th, put three players in double figures and rolled past Kennedy-Fremont 74-40. Matthew Villanueva had 15 points, followed by Kellen Hampton with 13 and Robert Morgan II with 10. Trey Knight had eight assists. … Monte Vista rebounded from an 18-point loss to Saratoga and upset 14th-ranked San Ramon Valley 56-51. SRV is 8-4, Monte Vista is 8-7.
Girls basketball
Carondelet will host the nine-game Sabrina Ionescu Showcase on Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m. It will feature a huge collection of the best girls high school players in Northern California.
Ionescu was a star at Miramonte under Kelly Sopak, who is now the coach at Carondelet. She then became the NCAA women’s Player of the Year at Oregon before being drafted by the New York Liberty of the WNBA.
Seven of the top 10 teams in this week’s Bay Area News Group Top 20 will participate, as will No. 18 Pinole Valley. The seven top 10 teams are top-ranked Carondelet, No. 2 Mitty, No. 4 St. Ignatius, No. 5 Pinewood, No. 6 Bishop O’Dowd, No. 9 Monte Vista and 10th-ranked Heritage.
The individual talent is eye-popping. It begins with the top three seniors in the Bay Area: O’Dowd forward Amaya Bonner (Cal signee), Pinewood guard Elle Ladine (Washington) and Carondelet guard Talana Lepolo (Stanford). All received four-star ratings and top 100 national rankings from ESPN.
Other top recruits include 6-foot-4 Heritage junior Amanda Muse, sophomore guard Morgan Cheli from Mitty, St. Ignatius senior guard Sabrina Ma, Woodside Priory senior forward Valentina Saric, Menlo senior forward Sharon Nejad, Monte Vista senior center Sarah Brans, Oakland Tech junior point guard Erin Sellers, St. Mary’s-Stockton sophomore Jordan Lee and Folsom freshman guard Ava Rawlins.
Muse might be the best of the bunch. She stands 6-foot-4 and recently narrowed her choice of colleges to a final six of Duke, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA and Washington.
Here’s the schedule:
Las Lomas vs. Piedmont, 8:30 a.m.
Lincoln (Stockton) vs. Menlo School, 10 a.m.
Pinole Valley vs. Woodside Priory, 11:30 a.m.
Folsom vs. Archbishop Mitty, 1 p.m.
Lick-Wilmerding vs. Bishop O’Dowd, 2:30 p.m.
Monte Vista vs. Pinewood, 4 p.m.
Oakland Tech vs. Clovis West, 5:30 a.m.
Heritage vs. Carondelet, 7 p.m.
St. Ignatius vs. St. Mary’s (Stockton), 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday’s girls games
Despite having played only one game over the past three weeks, Carondelet looked like it hadn’t missed a beat in thumping Dublin 77-22. The Cougars (12-1) led 48-8 at the half against the 8-6 Gaels. Ashley Lewis had 10 points and Kendall Cason 10 rebounds for Carondelet. … No. 15 Los Gatos edged Los Altos 42-41 behind 14 points from Nicole Steiner and 10 from Ashley Childers. Both players are freshmen. Los Gatos is 13-1 overall and 2-0 in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division. Mira Sundar had a career-high 12 points for Los Altos (10-4, 2-3) and Macy Watson added 10. … Madison Thomas poured in 20 points as No. 11 Moreau Catholic (12-3, 5-0 Mission Valley) rolled past Kennedy-Fremont 66-21. … Sarah Chan buried a 3-pointer with two seconds left in No. 20 American’s 54-52 win over Washington-Fremont. Junior guard Asha Walker had 28 points, including six 3-pointers, and eight rebounds for American (11-2, 5-1 Mission Valley). Nicole Lukito had 15 rebounds for the winners.
Football
Liberty seeks new coach
Liberty athletic director Andrew Lonsdale said he hopes to have a new football coach well before spring ball in May, and that the new guy won’t necessarily have to be a teacher.
Previous coach Matt Hoefs resigned on Friday after two seasons. He took over after the 2019 season for Ryan Partridge, who left after three years to become a college assistant.
Although being a teacher will not be a requirement, Lonsdale said, “We would like someone who will be available (on-campus) every day. If we have a coach who can’t get here until 3:30, that would be difficult.”
As for Hoefs’ decision to leave, Lonsdale said, “It caught us a little bit by surprise. The last couple of years has been a struggle for all of the coaches. A lot of them are feeling the burden of extra duties being put on them because of the pandemic.”
The football opening at Liberty is expected to be posted no later than next week, Lonsdale said. He added that there have already been quite a few inquiries.
“It doesn’t seem like we’ll be short of applicants,” he said.
Liberty should be an attractive job. It was 34-5 and won a state title in Partridge’s three seasons (2017-2019, and was 9-6 in Hoef’s two seasons. It’s the largest of three high schools in the Liberty Union High School District with almost 2,800 students as of the 2019-2020 school year.