SACRAMENTO – Brea-Olinda-Brea bolted out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 64-51 CIF Division I state championship victory at Sleep Train Arena over a no-quit St. Francis-Sacramento.
The Ladycats already owned the record for girls state titles with nine so the win adds to their total by giving the Orange County girls a 10th state championship in 13 appearances.
Arizona State-bound Reili Richardson, the ESPN No. 13 rated senior guard in the nation and No. 46 player overall, led Brea-Olinda with 26 points, nine rebounds, five assists and five steals. Ladycats sophomore forward Tyiona Watkins added 22 points, five rebounds and two steals, and sophomore 6-1 forward Krislyn Marsh had a double-double 12 points and 12 rebounds
Brea-Olinda (29-4) led 14-8 after one quarter, 31-12 at the half, 48-26 after three quarters, and stretched the lead to 24 points on two occasions including 52-28 before St. Francis went on a 23-12 run from that point in the fourth quarter to get the final score respectable.
In actuality, it wasn't until there was less than two minutes left in the third before St. Francis matched the point total at the time of Richardson.
“We set the tempo in the first half and shut them down with our defense,” said Brea-Olinda head coach Jeff Sink, who won his fifth state title in seven appearances.
St. Francis (29-6) was playing in front of a large group of students and fans, and the strong local support of the Sacramento schools’ faithful kept the girls energized until the final buzzer.
The Troubadours got a team-high 16 points and four assists from Australian-born and Colorado State-bound Tia Hay, but in the first half the Brea-Olinda defense only allowed her five points. Sophomore guard Marlee Nichols added 10 points and six rebounds, and senior 6-2 post Lauren Craig had a near double-double nine points and a game high 13 rebounds with four blocked shots.
“We set a realistic goal at the beginning of the playoffs of getting here, and we fell one game short, but no one can take away the fact these girls are the Northern California champions,” St. Francis head coach Vic Pitton remarked.
The local girls gave it their all but the story of this game was about the young Ladycats and their lone senior Richardson.
“It’s a dream come true to win a state championship,” Richardson said. “This is what I wanted all year after we lost last season.”
Brea-Olinda lost 55-40 last season to Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland in the CIF Division III title game.
This season started strong for Brea-Olinda with five wins to open the campaign, including a title in their Ladycat Classic and a 63-46 road win at a Fairmont Prep-Anaheim team that would later go on to post a victory over Southern Regional Open Division champion Chaminade-West Hills. However, they ran into trouble at the Nike TOC with losses to Tennessee No. 4 ranked Morristown-Hamblen West-Morristown and a close 53-51 setback to La Jolla Country Day.
The Ladycats closed out the TOC with a 72-44 victory over a Cajon-San Bernardino team that’s playing for a CIF Division II title on Saturday, and then won the Diamond Division of the West Coast Jamboree with a 65-62 victory over Carondelet of Concord.
“We went to the Nike TOC and played terribly but the West Coast Jamboree lit our season up. From there we played very well,” Sink remarked.
With the Cajon win and the three wins at the Jamboree Brea-Olinda went on to win 17-straight games before back-to-back losses to Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth and Alemany-Mission Hills in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs. During the streak the Ladycats had wins over Cal-Hi Sports state-ranked Troy-Fullerton, Windward-Los Angeles and Oaks Christian-Westlake Village.
Then, after being sent to back to Division I by the Southern Section for the Southern Regionals, Brea-Olinda avenged the loss to Alemany, beat Troy again and finally won the SoCal D1 Regional title with a 64-55 victory over state-ranked Vista Murrieta-Murrieta.
The Brea-Olinda victory was also career win No. 554 for Sink since he came south from Fairbanks Lathrop (Alaska) where he compiled a 238-72 record with two state championships in 13 seasons. Sink also took a break from girls coaching from 2011-2103 and he compiled a 38-29 record at the helm of the Brea-Olinda boys. If Sink’s girls coaching records are combined he would have more wins (792) than California all-time leader Joe Vaughn, who had 761 career coaching victories from 1976-2007 at Ventura Buena.
Even with all the state titles and coaching victories this year’s young group was special for the wily veteran.
“This is the youngest and nicest group of girls I’ve ever worked with. They have and intensity level and play with the kind of sheer joy I love to see,” Sink said.
The win by Brea-Olinda got Southern California on the winning track after Northern California had won the first three games on Thursday at Sleep Train Arena.
