Salesian takes control down the stretch, beats San Ramon Valley for NCS girls open title
MORAGA — Salesian High was pushed to the brink by San Ramon Valley Friday night, but wound up making history.
The Pride won its first-ever North Coast Section Open Division title with a 59-55 win over the Wolves at St. Mary’s College.
“Heart and soul,” Salesian coach Steve Pezzola said after an awards ceremony at midcourt. “Every play, we never give up. We’ve been down a few points at times this year but we have poise.”
‘Top-seeded Salesian (25-4) advances to the NorCal Open Division playoffs against a team yet to be determined, while No. 2 San Ramon Valley (26-4) awaits its assignment — whether it be the Open Division or a lower one.
Makiah Asidanya led Salesian with 18 points, with Madalyn Kanazawa adding 13 and Ayla Rege nine points on a trio of 3-point baskets in the second quarter. For San Ramon Valley, point guard Sierra Chambers and Anneka Lupinek had 15 points each.
The game was tight throughout, with sticky defense on both sides. San Ramon Valley never led by more than six points and Salesian never led by more than five.
Although Pezzolo said Salesian isn’t a team that relies heavily on the 3-point shot, the Pride had eight of them in the first half to help account for a 32-30 halftime lead.
Final: Salesian 59, San Ramon Valley 55 | Salesian wins NCS Open girls title | @joseph_dycus @leftwich @GReeves23 pic.twitter.com/aGPEsuM20x
— Darren Sabedra (@DarrenSabedra) February 25, 2023
San Ramon Valley was still within 44-43 at the end of the third quarter and surged to a 52-47 lead in the fourth with 4:48 let after a pair of free throws from Chambers.
From there, the Wolves scored only three points the rest of the way while Salesian controlled things inside and and grinded out a difficult win.
Asidanya’s drive put Salesian up 53-52 with 3:10 left, with Chambers scoring on a drive with 1:28 remaining to give San Ramon Valley its last lead at 54-53.
From there, Asiasi scored on a follow for a 55-54 lead, D’yani Bernstine scored on a layup with 53.3 seconds to gl to make it 57-54 and the Wolves scored just one more point on a free throw from Lupinek with 29.4 seconds remaining.
Asidanya’s two free throws with 24 seconds left accounted for the final margin and put the game on ice.
“I told the girls it would feel a lot better to walk out of this building having won the game with tears of joy rather than tears of sadness, but it wouldn’t change the level of pride we have for these kids and how hard they worked,” Wolves coach John Cristiano said. “It hurts but we lost to a great team.”
San Ramon Valley, which relies heavily on 3-point shots, got its last one from Lupinek from with 7:42 to play.
The way Salesian played down the stretch was representative of its game plan going in.
“We knew we didn’t want to get into a shooting match,” Asidanya said. “We kind of stuck to what we know, which is drive and attack. They were a really good team, a really good matchup, and we’re happy to get a new title for our school.”
Senior Nyana Asiasi tried to contribute in other ways when she couldn’t get her shots to fall, scoring four points but contributing a solid floor game and defending with tenacity.
“Tonight me and the basket didn’t get along that well, so I tried to contribute any way I could,” Asiasi said.
Pezzola acknowledged the difficulty of being an Open Division team in the NorCals, but liked what he saw in terms of grit.
“Last year we had 13 players and today we only had eight. One of our starters was out with an injury, and hopefully she’ll be back,” Pezzola said. “We just had to dig down deep.”