CCS girls basketball playoffs: Mitty, Pinewood to square off for Open Division title — again
The Archbishop Mitty girls basketball team is blessed with an abundance of size and depth. They come at an opponent in waves.
Coach Sue Phillips has seven 6-footers on her 12-player roster and creates a turnstile effect with her substitution pattern, rapidly sending players in and out throughout the game, sometimes five at a time.
It’s a bit much for opposing teams to deal with.
Valley Christian came closer Wednesday than it had in two previous meetings this season, But at the end of the day fell to 0-3 against the Monarchs on the season after a 53-47 loss.
Mitty (26-1) improved to 3-0 in Pool A play and advances to play Pinewood on Friday at 6 p.m. at the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz for the Central Coast Section Open Division title.
It will be the seventh year in a row that Mitty and Pinewood have played in the CCS Open Division championship game.
Against Valley Christian, Mitty’s aggressive employment of double teams and traps all over the court made it difficult for Valley to get into an offensive flow.
“This group can defend well in the open court and in the half court,” Phillips said. “That’s what’s special about this group, to defend and impact a game in a variety of ways.”
The Warriors, who lost their previous two games with Mitty 67-52 and 58-47, played well in the first half, leading by two at the end of the first quarter and trailing by two at the half.
Noemie Bariteau hit a 3-pointer to start the third quarter and Morgan Cheli followed with two more 3s in quick succession. By the end of the quarter the Monarchs had opened a 44-34 lead. Mitt’y grew its advantage to as much as 13 in the fourth quarter before a late run by Valley Christian made the final score closer.
“Playing a team for the third time there aren’t that many secrets,” Phillips said. “Due to the familiarity with personnel we couldn’t do as many things as we wanted to. Survive and advance, I’m really happy we punched our ticket.”
Cheli led the Monarchs with 17 points. Maya Hernandez scored 12 and Bariteau had 10.
Jael Butler paced Valley Christian (20-7) with 19 points. She had 14 in the first half.
In the Pool B final, Pinewood (22-1) avenged its only loss of the season in emphatic style with a 61-42 win at St. Ignatius.
Elle Ladine had 32 points and 19 rebounds and afterward coach Doc Scheppler was singing out a word-play rhapsody in her honor.
“Sensation-Elle, speci-Elle, she puts those numbers up every game,” Scheppler said. “No one is more excited to play Mitty.”
Pinewood had a 32-24 lead at halftime before Ladine, Kaile Cruz and Jade Ramirez connected on 3-pointers to begin the third quarter, extending the lead to 41-24.
Pinewood, which will be making its eighth consecutive CCS Open Division finals appearance, goes into the game on a 20-game winning streak. Mitty has won 17 in a row. Pinewood won its first CCS Open Division championship last June, 50-48 over the Monarchs.
In the other Open Division games, No. 7 seed Palo Alto rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat No. 6 Sacred Heart Cathedral 47-43, and No. 5 St. Francis defeated No. 8 Half Moon Bay 51-21.
Freshman Vienn Sheng scored 22 points to lead Palo Alto (22-4). Jessica Fiske had 13 rebounds, seven offensively, and Itzel Torres pulled down 10 rebounds while turning in a dominant defensive performance.