There was one upset and another game that came down to one shot where the coach rolled the dice and came up smelling like a rose, but in the end the Final Four for the girls CIF Open Division Northern and Southern Regional title games has four teams that all know what it’s like to win a state championship since all four have at least one, but that's something we'll touch on more next week when the finalists have been decided.
The NorCal Open Division title tilt is an all Bay Area and all Central Coast Section affair while the SoCal matchup is just like last year with the Central and Southern Sections meeting again just like last year.
Also, two of the three top California players every analyst in the state agrees on are still in action, one in the north and one in the south.
SOUTHERN REGIONAL OPEN TITLE GAME
#1 Windward-Los Angeles (25-3) versus #2 Clovis West-Fresno (32-3) The Pyramid at CSU Long Beach, Saturday, 4:00 pm
After not qualifying for the Open Division last season but going on to win a CIF Division I state championship, Windward and junior sensation Charisma Osborne are into the SoCal Open title game after a 75-49 dismantling of Etiwanda in the semifinals on Tuesday.
Osborne, who is getting major interest from some of the top D1 programs in the nation, is not alone.
During this playoff run that’s seen them knock off Bishop Montgomery-Torrance, Mater Dei-Santa Ana, Harvard-Westlake-Studio City and now Etiwanda, and in a current 18-game winning streak, Osborne has had help from senior sharpshooter Sela Kay, junior Kaiyah Corona, plus several other role players Coach Vanessa Nygaard goes to without hesitation.
Still, the engine that drives the Wildcats machine is Osborne, and she and the Windward faithful would like nothing better than to prove they belong in the same breath as other elite Open champions.
Windward has won two state titles and finished as a runner-up twice, but not in the Open Division. They’re not there yet because Clovis West will be no pushover.
Coach Craig Campbell graduated five seniors off the defending CIF Open Division state championship team that are playing in college and only returned one starter, his daughter and junior sharpshooter Madison Campbell is left on the Clovis West roster.
It hasn’t been easy to get to the match-up with Windward, and now that it’s happening on Saturday afternoon, the Golden Eagles have to be taken very seriously.
Despite facing a short-handed Mater Dei squad in the SoCal Open quarterfinals it was anything but a cakewalk for head coach Craig Campbell and his girls. Leading 52-49 with 1:34 left Madison Campbell drilled a deep 3-pointer and then junior Champney Pulliam iced it with 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in a 62-54 victory. Campbell finished with 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals. Nikki Tom had 17 points, Pulliam added 12 points as did Aari’yanna Sanders.
It was even closer against a Harvard-Westlake team that was banged up and suffered another injury to Pepperdine-bound Jayda Rufus-Milner in the second quarter when she went down with a knee injury.
Even so, Clovis West was down by eight points in the third quarter and two with 17 seconds left and won it 46-45 on a 3-pointer by Pulliam with 1.8 seconds remaining and Madison Campbell on the bench after fouling out with 2 minutes left.
“We went for the W. Didn’t like our chances with Madison on the bench in OT,” wrote Coach Campbell in an email. “Kids executed and Champney was clutch!”
Tom led the way with 17 points and eight rebounds, Campbell had 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists, Aari Sanders had 11 points and six rebounds, and Pulliam only had six points, but according to Coach Campbell she “locked up” Harvard-Westlake 3-point specialist Melanie Hirsch
Windward presents a different problem with Osborne, and Clovis West will need the same kind of production from a lot of girls to pull off what would be a minor upset.
How do you stop Osborne Coach Campbell?
“Tell her the game tips off at 8:00,” mused the coach. “You don’t stop a player like Osborne. She’s special. We have a few different schemes we’ll roll out to try and slow her down.”
“The key for us is we need to be us and do what we did to win 32 games and get to this point,” continued Campbell. “We played tight, young and not to lose last game. Also, we need to have leadership to organize us and execute the game plan on both ends of the floor.”
NORTHERN REGIONAL OPEN TITLE GAME
#1 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose (29-0) versus Pinewood-Los Altos Hills (26-2) Leavey Center at Santa Clara University, Saturday, 7:00 pm
When you’re the No. 1 team in the nation and any other ranking that falls below that level, chances are you’ve beaten the top teams in the land, and the reality is whether it was Pinewood or St. Mary’s-Stockton that survived the CIF Northern Regional semifinal, Coach Sue Phillips and her Archbishop Mitty girls were going to come into the game 1-0 against either opponent.
While most of the pundits and analysts thought it would be Cal-Hi Sports No. 2 and Maxpreps Xcellent 25 No. 5 St. Mary’s making the trip to face everything No. 1 Mitty, it was the Cal-Hi Sports No. 6 Panthers of Pinewood that Mitty beat 76-64 in the CCS Open title game Haley Jones and her teammates will be facing on Saturday for the NorCal Open title after Pinewood just got past St. Mary’s, 59-56.
When the two old CCS foes met for that game it was in the same Leavey Center at Santa Clara University they’ll be at this Saturday, so both teams are very familiar with the venue since they also played there for last year’s CCS Open title with Mitty taking the title with a 65-57 victory. Mitty also was there for last year’s NorCal Open title game where they posted a 78-54 victory over Cardinal Newman.
Mitty held its collective breath when Haley Jones went down after tweaking her ankle against Salesian and missed around four minutes in the late first and early second quarter. The momentum swung during that time and a 10-point first quarter lead turned into two small deficits, but once Jones got rolling again there was no stopping her. The junior sensation, that’s had the who’s who of major college coach recently make an appearance in San Jose to impress her, “went off” as Phillips said, on a bad wheel for a monster double-double 32 points and 13 rebounds and Mitty won 75-50 going away in its semifinal on Tuesday.
How is Pinewood Coach Doc Scheppler going to stop her?
“Is there really a way,” Scheppler answered. “You have to make her work.”
Yes, but then there’s Penn State-bound Karisma Ortiz. She and Jones have become like two peas in a pod. They know each other’s moves and are complimenting each other very well right now. Against Salesian Ortiz had 10 points and 15 rebounds with six assists, two on lobs that Jones put down without touching the floor.
When they need someone to step up their role players have been excellent. Freshman Hunter Hernandez scored all 14 of her points in the second half to help seal the deal against Salesian. In the first outing against Pinewood, junior Ania McNicholas, who is starting in place of University of San Diego-bound Nicole Blakes, who injured her knee in late February, led Mitty with 21 points. Senior sharpshooter Krissy Miyahara is always good for a three-pointer or two. She hit two in the first quarter against Salesian, including one at the end that gave Mitty an 18-8 lead with Jones on the trainer’s table.
Pinewood had the same kind of start against St. Mary’s in its semifinal as they did against Mitty in the CCS Open championship. Against Mitty they bolted to a 22-12 first quarter lead but went dead in the second quarter when they were outscored 25-5. They led St. Mary’s 25-14 after the first but the difference against the Rams was they stretched it to 39-20 before they gave up the final seven points of the half to lead 39-27 at halftime. It was 52-40 after three quarters before the desperation press of St. Mary’s got them close but not over the hump.
Pinewood shot the ball well against St. Mary’s just like the last time they played two years ago when the Rams were No. 1 in the nation and Pinewood knocked them off in the semis just like last Tuesday. They were 9 of 22 on 3-pointers compared to 2 for 18 for St. Mary’s. Two years ago, also in a 3-point win, Pinewood was 16 of 30 outside the arc and St. Mary’s was 6 for 29.
Stanford-bound Hannah Jump got it done against St. Mary’s after hopping her way to 19 points on 4 of 5 shooting on 3-pointers, steady Westmont College-bound senior Briana Claros had 11 points against the Rams as did freshman Courtni Thompson for a Panthers team that has its share of players that can get it done, including undersized but tough junior Klara Astrom.
So now the big question was posed to Scheppler. How do you reverse a 14-point loss two weeks ago and put an end to a three-game losing streak in the last three CCS Open title games?
“They out-boarded us last time 44-28 so we’ve got to board, board, board. Rebound, rebound, rebound,” said Scheppler in his patented Howard Cosell-like voice. “We definitely have to rebound better and that will minimize their easy baskets. But they’re just so long and athletic.”
The “they” Scheppler is talking about are Jones and Ortiz. During the stretch run they have virtually been double-double machines. In the last five games Jones has double-doubled with at least 20 points in all five if you use the official CCS stats that show her with 20 and 14 against Pinewood. Jones, who is averaging a double-double, also has a current streak of 14 straight games with 20 points or more.
For Mitty it would appear to be a similar strategy to the game two weeks ago minus the 10-point first quarter deficit. Coach Sue Phillips makes no bones about her strategy.
“We’ve got to try and limit their usual cast of characters and that means Hannah Jump, Klara Astrom and Briana Claros and make sure no one else has a career night,” Phillips said.
“We have to control the boards because that affords us put-backs, match up in transition, guard their sets, and make sure their shots are contested,” said Phillips, who was recently named the 2018 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
Can Pinewood knock off the No. 1 team in the nation like they did two years ago? The answer will come Saturday at 6:00 pm at the Leavey Center on the campus of Santa Clara University.
