HAYWARD, Calif. – Four teams comprised of Northern California seniors gathered on Saturday afternoon at Chabot College for the inaugural Simply Basketball Battle of NorCal Girls Senior Festival. The group included 26 college-bound girls out of the 39 players that competed,
The Festival started with games between Team Elite and Team Legendary and then Team All-Star and Team 5-Star. Those game were followed by a Skills Relay Challenge and a 3-point contest. The two teams that lost in the first game met in a Consolation Game and the Festival concluded with the two winners playing for the championship.
Two of the teams, Team Elite and Team 5-Star, had all Bay Area players from the CIF North Coast and Central Coast Section on their roster. Team Elite and Team Legendary had players mostly from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section but also a few from the NCS and CCS to fill out their rosters.
In the first game Team Elite came back from a 52-32 halftime deficit to win 72-71 on a basket and one by Salesian-Richmond sharpshooter and Sacramento State-bound Kaylie Edge. That was followed by a somewhat surprising 93-56 blowout win by Team All-Star over Team 5-Star. That set up the championship between teams All-Star and Elite
Team All-Star, comprised of seven players from the Sac-Joaquin Section and one each from the CCS and NCS, won 75-51 over Team Elite in the championship game.
Team Elite was made up of nine players from the North Coast Section and one from the Central Coast Section.
Team All-Star set the tone right from the opening tip-off when they bolted to an 11-0 lead after Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills star and Washington-bound Teagan Brown made her second basket of the game. It was a lead they would never relinquish.
The lead stretched to 22-5 on a three-pointer by Laguna Creek-Elk Grove guard Zoe Tillery, but Team Elite fought back to only trail 30-26 at the end of the first of two 20-minute running clock halves behind 10 first-half points by Salesian-Richmond star guard Nevaeh Asiasi.
Team Elite stayed close to start the second half, and when Monte Vista forward and Idaho-committed Sarah Brans hit a three-pointer the Team All-Star lead was cut to 33-31, but that would be as close as Team Elite would get. A 14-2 run by Team All-Star got it to 47-33 and from there Team Elite could never get closer than 12 points as Team All-Star took over down the stretch to win going away led by Edison-Stockton center and San Francisco State-bound Tierra Snipes.
Snipes only had two points in the first half but 18 in the second to finish with a game-high 20 points with six rebounds. Brown had all of her six points in the first half but she had a game-high 10 rebounds. Her defense in the second half was key. Tulsa-bound Laguna Creek-Elk Grove star Ahrray Young added 14 points and six rebounds with 10 points coming in the second half. All three shared MVP honors for the Festival.
Team Elite was led by UC Santa Barbara-bound Annabel Schieberg of Lick-Wilmerding-San Francisco with 14 points, Asiasi only mustered two second half points and finished with 12 points. Cal-bound Amaya Bonner of Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland had nine points but was held scoreless in the first half.
Other Team All-Star players and their lines include:
Tillary (11 points), Jenika Zurita, Salinas (nine points on three three-pointers), Keyonee Neal, Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park (seven points, four rebounds, one three-pointer), Cal Poly Pomona-bound Keke Scott, Rocklin (four points, four rebounds), Donnelli Allen (Capital Christian-Sacramento (two points) and Penn-committed Folsom post Elle Ray with two points and seven rebounds.
Other Team Elite players and their numbers include:
Idaho-bound Sara Brans, Monte Vista (eight points, Silivia “Via” Fonongaloa, Salesian (five points), Edge (three points on a three-pointer), Dominique Caba, Lick-Wilmerding (three points on a three-pointer), San Jose State-committed Sabrina Ma of St. Ignatius, Stanislaus State-bound Alexis Woodson of Monte Vista-Danville, and Anela Thomas of St. Mary’s-Berkeley did not score.
The Consolation game was close most of the game with Team 5-Star taking its biggest lead at 70-62 on a three-pointer by Stanislaus State-bound Jadyn Patterson of Valley Christian-San Jose.
Team Legendary went on a 10-2 run to tie it at 72-72 but 5-Star scored the final five points in a 77-72 victory.
Washington-bound Elle Ladine of Pinewood-Los Altos Hills led 5-Star with a double-double 22 points and 11 rebounds. Patterson added 12 points on four three-pointers, Morgan State-committed Jael Butler of Valley Christian-San Jose added 11 points and six rebounds, UC Davis-signed Nya Epps of Carondelet had three three-pointers for nine points plus four assists, and Boise State-committed Natalie Pasco of San Ramon Valley-Danville also had nine points plus six rebounds.
Other 5-Star team members were Seattle University-commit Makayla Moore of Archbishop Mitty-San Jose (five points, nine rebounds), Texas San Antonio-bound Siena Guttadauro of Mitty (four points), Sadie Carter of San Ramon Valley (three points), and Seattle University-bound Noemi Bariteau of Mitty and Lolo Green of Castro Valley did not score.
Three girls were in double-figure scoring for Team Legendary led Sacramento State-signed Madison Butcher of Del Oro-Loomis with 19 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists. Stanislaus State-committed Mkayla Rose of Folsom had 12 points (two three-pointers) and Oregon Tech-bound Chelsea Ching of Folsom had two three-pointers and finished with 10 points. Air Force-committed Faith Shelton of Lincoln Stockton only had five points but she snagged 11 rebounds.
Epps beat out Guttadauro to win the Skills Relay Challenge, and Edge edged out Bonner to win the 3-point contest.
