ALAMEDA, CA – Trailing 30-29 midway through the third quarter, host and second-seed St. Joseph Notre Dame went on a 10-1 run to close out the quarter and then held off No. 3 seed Clovis West-Fresno in a CIF Northern Regional Open Division semifinal 53-47 victory where defense was once again a huge factor.
“We knew Clovis West were a bunch of shooters and drivers,” Coach Brian Sato said. “We did our best to contest everything and close out when we needed to. I’m definitely proud of the overall effort of the team on both ends of the court.”
The Mastora sisters, junior Makena and UC Riverside-bound Malia led a balanced attack with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Malia added seven rebounds
Senior Sophie Nilsson had nine points and nine rebounds. Five of her points came in the fourth quarter, including a three-pointer that gave the Pilots a 44-36 lead. Fellow senior Maila Lepolo also had nine points. Standout sophomore Talana Lepolo added seven points, six rebounds and four steals, and once again led an outstanding defensive effort by St. Joseph Notre Dame. Junior post Kalia Colverson came off the bench for six points, all in the third quarter when the Pilots took control. She also had eight rebounds, with five coming in the fourth quarter.
The game was a back and forth affair in the first half with nine lead changes and two ties before St. Joseph Notre Dame (24-7) went into the locker room with a 22-21 lead.
The host Pilots continued to hold a small lead to start the third quarter but a three-pointer by Clovis West senior Aaliyah Seuell was the tenth lead change at 30-29, but it didn’t last long. A basket by Talana Lepolo was lead change No. 11 and the last as St. Joseph Notre Dame took a 31-30 lead it never relinquished.
Despite trailing by eight to end the third quarter after the St. Joseph Notre Dame run Clovis West (27-5) refused to fold.
After the three-pointer by Nilsson that gave the Pilots the 44-36 lead, the Golden Eagles got back-to-back three-pointers by Alyssa Kuniyoshi and Kendall Jackson and all of a sudden the lead was down to 44-42, and the packed house that included a lot of Clovis West fans that made the 350-mile round trip started to really rock.
From there Malia Mastora scored and Talana Lepolo nailed a three-pointer and the lead was 49-42 with around three minutes left, but Clovis West was still not done.
St. Joseph Notre Dame had three successive turnovers and when Clovis West junior Alexa Silva drained a three-pointer the lead was 49-46 with 1:35 left. That’s when the Pilots defense tightened up, and only allowed a free-throw by Seuell, and Makena Mastora was 4-for-4 from the free-throw line down from there to close things out.
Seuell led Clovis West (27-5) with 11 points but nine of her points came on three pointers, and her style of slashing to the basket was denied by the St. Joe’s defense. Nikki Tom, one of the top junior guards in California, and the top player on Clovis West, was totally taken out of her game by the Pilots defense and finished with eight points, and it was the defense of the Lepolo sisters that did the job.
“Tom was definitely on our radar tonight,” Sato remarked. “We knew she was their most dynamic scorer and a lot of the offense runs through her. We thought if we could contain her and stop her dribble penetration we’d be in good shape. “We didn’t want our guards getting in foul trouble because she is so aggressive getting to the paint. We started out with Maila Lepolo on her but switched to Talana.”
Whatever the formula Sato and his staff came up with it worked, and the play of the 6-0 Colverson off the bench was huge. She was 4-of-4 from the free-throw line during the 10-1 third quarter run and her rebounding along with Nilsson helped the Pilots finish with a 35-27 advantage on the glass.
“Colverson played huge tonight,” Sato said. “We knew our bigs were going to have to contribute if we were going to win and Kalia came up with some huge defensive stops tonight and her made free-throws were also huge.”
Colverson was the only real contributor numbers wise off the bench but others that Sato inserted also contributed to a total team effort.
“I thought all the girls that came off the bench contributed to the victory for sure,” continued Sato. “Even if it was to get the starters some rest there was never much fall off with reserves giving us crucial minutes.”
For a young Clovis West it was still a great season for a team that was supposed to be in a re-building mode.
“Only one team wins its last game and tonight we came up a little short,” Clovis West Coach Craig Campbell said. “We’re young so we should be even tougher next season.”
Four of the five starters return with only Seuell graduating.
All season the naysayers have counted St. Joseph Notre Dame out, and questioned their record and strength of schedule even as they were the Prep2Prep North Coast Section No. 1 ranked team, the top seed in the NCS Open Division, and the No. 2 seed in the CIF Open NorCals. Now after answering the doubters the Pilots girls have nothing left to prove heading into a showdown with Archbishop Mitty on Tuesday at Gunn High in Palo Alto for the CIF Northern Regional Open Division title.
It will be the third meeting this year between Mitty and St. Joseph Notre Dame with the Monarchs winning the first two handily. Mitty won 75-39 in the third-place game of the Platinum Division of the West Coast Jamboree, and then four days later at home they were a 60-39 winner so despite being the No. 2 team in Northern California the Pilots will be a huge underdog.
“Hopefully the third time’s a charm,” Nilsson remarked.
We’re super excited to be playing Mitty again,” Malia Mastora said.
If Sato and his girls pull off the upset they’ll finish as the No. 1 team in Northern California and will then meet the winner of the Windward-Los Angeles and La Jolla Country Day winner in the Southern Regional Open Division title game.
If St. Joseph Notre Dame can’t pull off the upset it will still be a great season, particularly with everything the girls have been through after former coach Shawn Hipol stepped down and the girls rallied around Sato to get this far, and that in itself is an amazing accomplishment.
