DUBLIN, Calif. – The Platinum Division championship on Monday night at Dublin High will be an all-Southern California affair after both Mater Dei-Santa Ana and Windward-Los Angeles punched their tickets to the title game with impressive wins in Saturday’s semifinals.
Mater Dei (14-2), which was recently bumped up to No. 9 in the Maxpreps national rankings and is in the No. 5 spot as of the last Cal-Hi Sports rankings done on January 19 and prior to a third-place finish for the Monarchs at the Nike TOC, was extremely impressive in an 83-49 victory over a Cal-Hi Sports No. 8 Bishop Montgomery-Torrance in a game that threatened to go to a running clock.
When the teams were seeded Bishop Montgomery (10-3) got the No. 3 seed due to a 3-point head-to-head loss to Windward and despite the fact the Knights were ranked ahead of Windward in the most recent Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.
The game didn’t start out like the Mater Dei opening round 66-point win over Oakland Tech where the Monarchs bolted out to a 20-0 lead and the game was virtually a done deal.
In this game Bishop Montgomery junior Sophia Dignadice scored the game’s first points on a three-pointer, but Mater Dei junior star Kaeli Wynn showed early on she would dominate the paint with an inside basket where she was fouled and the free-throw knotted things at three-apiece. The run would go to 9-0 on a basket by Iowa-bound Addie Deal and Mater Dei stretched the 9-3 lead to 19-10 after one quarter.
From that point on it was all Mater Dei. Wynn nailed the first of her three three-pointers, all in the second quarter, and after an 18-2 run in which Deal and Wynn combined for 15 of the 18 points, it was 37-12 and the game was pretty much decided, even though at that point it was only midway through the second quarter.
By halftime it was 48-20 and Wynn already had 22 points and seven rebounds, and Deal had 14 points and six rebounds. Both played sparingly from that point on. Wynn finished with a double-double 28 points and 12 rebounds with four assists, and Deal also had a double-double after adding 16 points and 11 rebounds with five assists.
At this point of Mater Dei were to win the title on Monday its looking like Wynn and Deal will be the obvious top two choices for the David “Scoop” Jackson Most Valuable Player Award with Wynn having a slight advantage.
Mater Dei is so deep that even after Mater Dei head coach Jody Wynn began emptying the bench after the Monarchs had a 68-38 lead to start the fourth quarter, the mostly reserves got the lead to 35-points before settling on the final margin of victory.
Sophomore forward Stella Hoss has found her way into the starting lineup and the left-hander finished with nine points (one three-pointer) and six rebounds with two steals. Senior transfer and power forward Lani Stores, who sat out last season after moving from the Bay Area, is starting to have an impact and finished with eight points and four rebounds.
Grand Canyon University-committed senior Amaya Williams, and senior Devin Kiernan, the daughter of recently retired Mater Dei head coach and all-time California winningest head coach and current Monarchs Athletic Director, Kevin Kiernan, each chipped in with seven points.
Bishop Montgomery got 15 points (three-three pointers) from standout sophomore guard Armanyie Reed, but Rice-bound senior star Jordin Blackmon was held to nine points and two rebounds. Dignadice ended up with three three-pointers for nine points.
Windward runs past McClatchy with hot shooting and big runs
They say basketball is a game of runs, and that fact was never more apparent than the first Platinum semifinal when Cal-Hi Sports Top 30 Windward used a combination several big runs and some torrid three-point shooting to post an impressive 80-47 victory over a McClatchy-Sacramento team that came into the Jamboree ranked No. 16 in the most recent Cal-Hi Sports state rankings.
University of Central Florida-committed senior Samari Bankhead connected on five three-pointers and finished with 21 points, six rebounds and two assists. Senior point guard Olivia Lagao nailed four five three-pointers and added 19 points, four rebounds and two steals. Freshman phenom Amel Cook made two three-pointers and added 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals. Budding sophomore forward Charis Rainey didn’t hit any three-pointers but she was a terror in the paint and finished with a double-double 16 points and 11 rebounds with three assists and three steals.
All told Windward connected on 13 three-pointers.
Windward (8-5) started out 5-1 with a lone loss to state-ranked Sage Hill and a three-point win over Bishop Montgomery, but right after that win they lost a second time to Sage Hill and then were upset by Los Angeles Hamilton. Prior to the Jamboree they lost to nationally-ranked Ontario Christian and then were upset by Chaminade of West Hills.
Now, after the opening round 50-34 victory over Hawaii No. 1 Kamehameha, and the impressive win over McClatchy, it looks Schrote finally is starting to integrate a Windward roster, that includes six freshmen and a sophomore on a 12-player roster, with the four seniors and one junior.
“Its start to come together,” said Windward head coach Rachel Schrote.
Windward trailed 4-2 early on but a basket and three-point play for Rainey gave them a 7-4 lead they stretched to 22-6 on a 15-2 run before an 8-0 McClatchy run by McClatchy made it 22-14 after one quarter.
The lead got to 41-23 but an 8-0 McClatchy run to close the half still had the Sacramento girls within reach at 41-31 at the intermission.
The Wildcats pretty much put things away with a 20-4 run to open the second half that made it 61-35, and they continued to built the lead to its largest margin on the game’s final tally.
McClatchy (8-3) got 17 points from Washington-bound senior Nina Cain and 10 points from senior Norret Lewis.
The championship between Mater Dei and Windward will be at 7:30pm on Monday. Windward will be a decided underdog but anything is possible.
“We’ll see what we’ve got,” said Schrote about facing Mater Dei.
McClatchy will square off with Bishop Montgomery at 5pm on Monday in the Third-place game.
St. Mary’s and Kamehameha to play for Platinum third place
With losses in the Platinum Division opening round, St. Mary’s-Stockton and Hawaii Kamehameha of Honolulu advanced to the third-place game with victories on Friday.
After a heartbreaking 51-47 loss on Friday to Bishop Montgomery, St. Mary’s (7-6) bounced back with a 59-56 victory over Oakland Tech, but it was anything but easy.
Cal-Hi Sports No. 15 St. Mary’s led 39-25 at the half but No. 25 Oakland Tech closed to 48-38 after three quarters. The Rams went on an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter and at 56-38 it looked like they would have an easy win. However, the Bulldogs went on a 9-2 run that got it to 58-47, but Tech, and particularly J’hai Johnson, still were not done.
Johnson hit a long three-pointer and it was 58-50. St. Mary’s converted a free-throw, but Johnson answered with a college distance trey and it was 59-53. Johnson then made a third straight three-pointer and it was 59-56 with 19.7 seconds left. Tech forced a turnover and got the ball back with 18.1 seconds to go but the St. Mary’s defense closed it out.
For the second straight game St. Mary’s played without junior power forward Evelini Smith, who had a family engagement, but St. Mary’s head coach Alle Moreno got some balanced scoring to offset her absence as four players hit double-figure scoring led by sophomore guard Ava Perez with 14 points. Freshman phenom Amani Rafiq added 12 points as did senior Nyah Bunton, and junior Mia Jamias had 10 points.
Hawaii top-ranked Kamehameha (13-3) rebounded from a 50-34 loss to Windward in its opener to pin a 72-53 loss on Cal-Hi Sports No. 19 Clovis.
Junior power forward Nihoa Dunn, regarded by most analysts as a D1 prospect and the top player from the islands, had her way inside against Clovis and finished with 24 points. Fellow junior Rylee Paranada made two three-pointers and finished with 14 points.
Clovis (12-3) got 17 points from senior Saiya Sidhu, 16 points from junior Sadie Sin and 13 points from junior Yazmin Aguilera, but the rest of the roster only had seven points combined.
All CCS final in Diamond Division
It will be an all-CIF Central Coast Section affair in the title game of the Diamond Division when two upstarts, Priory-Portola Valley matches up with St. Francis-Mountain View.
Priory (9-1) almost let a 10-point fourth quarter lead evaporate before holding on for a 49-46 victory over Chaminade-West Hills.
St. Francis (10-0) came into the Jamboree 8-0, but they were off the radar screen since their competitive equity resume was not very strong. That all changed when in a 53-50 victory where they a bested San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno team that was on the Cal-Hi Sports bubble, and then in the semifinals they took out No. 11 Fairmont Prep-Anaheim in a 66-58 victory in a game Fairmont controlled but lost down the stretch when St. Francis super hot shooting the ball.
