The following two recaps are for the CIF Boys Open and Division I championship title games contested on Friday for D1 and Saturday for Open at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The recaps for the other four divisions will be in a second post
Open Division
Harvard-Westlake-Studio City 76, St. Joseph-Santa Maria 65
A lot of times prior to the Open era the Southern Regional winners in the top divisions would sometime have a letdown in the CIF state title games after winning a Southern Regional title, particularly teams from the CIF Southern Section where the playoffs are like running a gauntlet.
It didn’t happen on Saturday night at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, but the possibility of the letdown manifesting itself could have come to place.
Southern Regional No. 3 seed Harvard-Westlake first went to Bellflower and defeated No. 2 seed, California No. 3 and nationally-ranked St. John Bosco in the semifinals, and then traveled to Corona and toppled top-seeded and state No. 1 and national-ranked Centennial in the SoCal Open title game. At that point they had already beaten the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings at that time, and now the No. 3 ranked Wolverines were facing a team with the No. 10 ranking.
Harvard-Westlake (33-2) didn’t do anything fancy other than lead from start to finish but St. Joseph, the Northern California Open champion that was seeded No. 3 in the Northern Regionals, kept it around a 10-point deficit. The Knights never trailed by more than 15, but they were not able to make a real run that threatened the Wolverines.
It is the program’s fourth overall CIF state crown, but the first in the coveted Open Division.
The state championship is a bit of redemption for Harvard-Westlake after it lost in the top division of The classic at Damian in December, lost to St. John Bosco during CIF Southern Section Open Division pool play, and that cost them a shot at a section title-game match-up with Centennial.
Head coach Dave Rebibo and his Wolverines didn’t win a section title but they avenged the loss to St. John Bosco and instead of getting a crack at Centennial in the CIFSS Open title game, but instead got that shot in the SoCals with a somewhat surprising 80-61 victory that sent them to the Golden 1 Center where they captured the ultimate prize.
Junior standout and team catalyst Trent Perry led a balanced attack with a lot of players capable of leading the team in scoring which makes the wolverines a tough team to defend against. Perry had a near triple-double after finishing with 16 points and 10 assists, plus eight rebounds and two steals, senior forward Brady Dunlap led Harvard-Westlake in scoring with 18 points, and senior forward Jacob Huggins added a double-double 15 points and 12 rebounds.
St. Joseph (28-7) was led by Luis Marin with 18 points, budding sophomore star Tounde Yessoufou added 14 points and senior Caeden Hamilton also had 14 and tied Marin for team-high with five rebounds for a Knights team that had a pretty huge rebounding disadvantage.
As for Rebibo, he captured his second state championship after Harvard-Westlake won the 2016 Division IV title with him at the Wolverines helm.
Division I
Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks 67, Granada-Livermore 58
With its victory in the state CIF Division I championship it created a sweep of the top two divisions for boys in the state championships by the Mission League.
League champion Harvard-Westlake (27-10) captured the Open Division, while Notre-Dame, whose only loss in league was 85-78 in double overtime at home to Harvard-Westlake, took home the D1 crown with its Friday night win over Granada at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Had the CIF seeded even six teams for the Southern Regional Open Division, Notre Dame, who went 2-1 in the CIF Southern Section Open Division pool play, would have been the No. 6 seed. However with only five chosen for both the Southern and Northern Regionals, the Wolverines drew the top seed in the Division I SoCals after the Southern Section submitted them as the lowest in its pecking order of the four teams that went 2-1 in pool play.
In some ways it was a blessing in disguise for Notre Dame since it paved the way for the Knights to earn a state championship, the first in school history.
About the only thing that was the same between Northern Regional Division I champion Granada (26-11) and Notre Dame is they both had double-digit losses coming into the state championship title game. Granada was the fourth-place finisher in the East Bay Athletic League and only drew the No. 9 seed in the D1 NorCals.
While Notre Dame pretty much coasted past Westchester-Los Angeles in the opening round, and then Mira Costa-Manhattan Beach, Mater Dei-Santa Ana, and then took down No. 3 seed Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth, 80-61 in the SoCal D12 title game, they played all the games at home.
Granada went on the road to Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco in its opening round match-up, and then travelled to Fresno where the Matadors upset top-seeded Clovis West, from there they went back to San Francisco and upset No. 4 seed Archbishop Riordan, and finally they won the NorCal crown on the road in San Pablo at Contra Costa College with a 60-47 victory over Salesian-Richmond.
To most media and analysts in attendance Notre Dame looked like an Open Division team, but Granada didn’t go down without a fight.
The difference maker for Notre Dame was Duke-bound senior Caleb Foster, a North Carolina native that transferred from Oak Hill Academy of Virginia for his senior season. He dominated with his explosiveness and shot-making. Foster was the key from the start of the game and his strong drive fouled out Andrew McKeever, the St. Mary’s-committed Granada 7-footer.
Foster had 18 points at halftime with his team leading 39-27 and set a CIF Division I state championship game scoring record by finishing with 33 points plus six rebounds, six assists and two steals. The scoring output broke the old record set of 32 points set way back in 1981 by Michael Manning from Castlemont-Oakland.
Senior Tyler Harris led Granada with a double-double 17 points and 10 rebounds, senior Nate Keaney added 16 points, and McKeever added 12 points and nine rebounds.
Notre Dame was successful despite Gonzaga-bound senior guard Dusty Stromer gutting out a back injury and finishing with just three points. Mercy Miller, another Oak Hill Academy transfer who is a junior, picked up the slack with 17 points. Dante Ogbu, a senior center turned 3-point specialist, made two three-pointers and finished with 10 points.
Credit a scrappy Granada for giving Notre Dame pretty much its toughest game in the state playoffs and providing the narrowest margin of victory of any of the Knights five playoff games.
