STOCKTON, CA – On Saturday and in the first day of the MLK Showcase at St. Mary’s it was a great night for the hosts, but the Maxpreps Xcellent 25 national No. 6 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 2 ranked Rams were expected to prevail over national No. 21 and Nevada No. 1 Centennial.
While St. Mary’s took care of business with a huge second half in its win over the girls from Las Vegas, the biggest story to come out of the nine games contested on Saturday was the emergence of two underclass girls from the San Fernando Valley, freshman Kiki Iriafen of Harvard-Westlake and sophomore Vanessa De Jesus of Sierra Canyon. Together they made it a great day for the Valley.
Nine games were contested on Saturday with nine more on tap for Monday.
Harvard-Westlake-North Hollywood 54, Salesian 39
The bottom line in this game was the first of two stars was born as 6-1 freshman Kiki Iriafen of Harvard-Westlake, combined with the performance of the Rufus-Milner Pepperdine-down twins, Jayda and Jayla, overpowered a young Salesian team in the second half of a game that saw the Southern California girls only leading 34-33 after three quarters.
Iriafen, who can handle the ball with either hand and finishes down low, but lets her teammates do the majority of the ball-handling duties, finished with a double-double 22 points and 17 rebounds and frustrated Salesian 6-5 junior post Angel Jackson all game.
“She has a lot of natural talent and knows her limits, but even so she was the best player on the floor,” was the assessment of ESPN girls basketball analyst Dan Olson, and that says a lot, because Jackson is a highly regarded D1 recruit and the Rufus-Milner twins are signed to play D1 ball.
No one else was in double-figure scoring for Harvard-Westlake (16-3) but the 5-11 and physically strong twins had a significant affect on wearing down Salesian. Jayla, who is playing while still recovering from a separated shoulder, had nine points but also snagged 11 rebounds, and Jayda added seven points and eight rebounds.
Of note is of the twins 16 points combined, 11 came in the second half and that almost equaled the mere 13 second half points Salesian could muster. Also, Jayda helped dominate the paint in the second half with 10 of her 11 rebounds.
Sydni Stewart was the only player in double-figure scoring for Prep2Prep NCS No. 1 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 5 Salesian (11-3) with 11 points.
After coming off a triple-double against Campolindo it was a very tough game for Jackson. Even so, she finished with seven points, nine rebounds and six blocks.
Harvard-Westlake will be taking on Nevada Centennial-Las Vegas on Monday at St. Mary’s while Salesian meets Alemany-Mission Hills.
Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth 63, Folsom 61
The nightcap and most exciting of the nine games contested on Saturday saw Cal-Hi Sports No. 11 Sierra Canyon and No. 4 Folsom (15-3) in a see-saw battle most of the game with the Southern California girls eventually holding on for a 63-61 victory.
There were eight lead changes and eight ties as it went back and forth. Even so, the San Fernando Valley girls trailed at one point by eight points in the third quarter, and then pulled away midway through the fourth quarter but nearly blow an eight point lead themselves with less than a minute to go.
The star that was born in this game was Sierra Canyon sophomore guard and Marlborough-Los Angeles transfer Vanessa De Jesus. She finished with 24 points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals, but it was the fourth quarter when she went ballistic. Of the Trailblazers 21 points in the fourth quarter De Jesus had the first eight and 13 of the first 17 points with assists on the other two baskets.
“I came to Sierra Canyon so Coach (Alicia) Komaki could develop my game and I feel like I’m getting better every day,” De Jesus said. “Tonight, I was just feeling it in the fourth quarter and I fed off my teammates energy.”
Even with the barrage of De Jesus it was still close and actually tied for the last time at 50-50 midway through the final period before Sierra Canyon (14-3) took the lead for good.
Folsom (15-3) had a last-ditch effort to send the game into overtime when a hurried layup by freshman Charity Gallegos (14 points, four three-pointers) rolled out at the buzzer.
Cal-bound McKenzie Forbes (24 points, six rebounds) hit an off balance NBA range three-pointer with 19 seconds left, and after Sierra Canyon missed the front end of a one-on-one Folsom rebounded the ball with 5.4 seconds remaining but couldn’t quite force an extra period.
Amanda Olinger, a 6-3 junior post that was a member of the Trailblazers CIS state champion volleyball team, added 11 points and six rebounds. TCU-bound guard Ryann Payne only had nine points but she pulled down 11 rebounds and had four assists.
Sierra Canyon plays McClatchy-Sacramento on Monday with Folsom done for the St. Mary’s event.
St. Mary’s wins handily in tale of two halves
Host St. Mary’s may be ranked No. 6 in the Xcellent 25 and No. 2 by Cal-Hi Sports, but on Saturday in their own gym they looked beatable after trailing by 10 points in the second quarter and by four at the half.
That all changed midway through the third quarter as St. Mary’s (16-2) took control to win going away in a 78-61 victory over Xcellent 25 No. 21 and Nevada No. 1 Centennial-Las Vegas.
Baylor-bound Aquira DeCosta had an off game offensively, but Florida-bound Ariel Johnson and Princeton-bound Neenah Young did not.
Johnson shredded the defense with her slashing style and although she didn’t have a three-pointer she finished with a game-high 25 points (five-of-five free-throws) with six rebounds and four assists. Young was the one doing the long-range shooting and had five three-pointers to finish with 21 points plus eight rebounds and three steals.
DeCosta had a couple of no feet touching down layups and a lob but only had eight points. She did have 17 rebounds, four blocks, four steals and three assists. Jada Moss added 12 points with three second-half three-pointers.
“We made defense a priority and came out with more energy in the second half, Young said.
Centennial (16-3) got 16 points and eight rebounds from junior Eboni Walker and 11 points (three three-pointers) from UNLV-bound Justice Ethridge.
“It’s a good win,” said St. Mary’s Coach Tom Gonsalves. “Neenah and Ariel had great games and we got in there and rebounded, especially Aquira, but we need to be committed to what we do and not second guess things like we did in the first half.”
St. Mary’s plays Ribet Academy-Los Angeles on Monday and Centennial squares off with Harvard-Westlake in what should be a doozy.
Miramonte 66, La Jolla Country Day 47
It was a very solid outing for Prep2Prep No. 4 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 18 Miramonte in a win over a short-handed La Jolla Country Day.
The Mats (12-4) led from the start and although only Erin Tarasow (15 points, two three-pointers, six-for-six free-throws) was the only girl in double-figure scoring but 12 girls scored and six of them had five points or more. Sophomore Rebecca Welsh and freshman Nia Mastrov had eight points, and Lehigh-bound Clair Steele had seven points and five steals.
La Jolla Country Day (12-6) was playing without senior forward Bianca Notarainni who was injured last week in a win over rival Bishop’s. The Torreys were led by UC San Diego-bound Kendal Ellenbeck with 21 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Miramonte is not playing on Monday while La Jolla Country Day faces Prep2Prep No. 2 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 12 Cardinal Newman.
Woodside Priory 49, Fairmont Prep-Anaheim 48
The finish in this affair rivaled the Folsom ending in its loss to Sierra Canyon, only this time it went to the Northern California girls.
Trailing 48-46 with 10.4 seconds left after two free-throws by Fairmont Prep’s Brittaney Chan (10 points), Tatiana Reese advanced the ball up court and instead of driving to the basket for a possible tie, she found Dominique Robson and the sophomore guard drained her fifth three-pointer of the game with 2.8 seconds left to give Coach Buck Matthews and his girls a huge win over a very solid group of girls from Orange County.
The game was a back-and-forth contest with Woodside Priory at one point leading 30-23 in the early this quarter, but Fairmont Prep would not go away, and fought back to take a 46-41 lead with 1:20 left on a basket by Chan, but from there her two free-throws was their only other tally.
Robson hit a three-pointer to cut it to 46-44, Reese got an assist on a basket by Lala Niu, and then came Chan’s free-throws and Robson’s game winner.
Robson led Woodside Priory (5-9) with 15 points, all on three-pointers. Reese added 11 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
Besides Chan, Fairmont Prep (10-6) got a game-high 16 points with five steals from junior Izzy Om.
Woodside Priory is playing Brookside Christian-Stockton on Monday in the MLK Showcase at Bishop O’Dowd, while Fairmont Prep is in action on Monday in Stockton against Prep2Prep Central Coast Section No. 9 Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Ribet Academy-Los Angeles 60, Heritage 44
The girls from Los Angeles were never really threatened and the game looks closer then it was after P2P NCS No. 8 Heritage scored the game final nine points after Ribet Coach Nelson Wong emptied the bench.
It was a Northern California debut for Oregon-State-bound Andrea Aquino, who at 6-9 is the tallest girl know to take the court in California.
Aquino (four points, six rebounds) didn’t do a lot in the game and she didn’t have to against an overmatched Heritage. The girl that impressed was Utah-bound 6-3 center Lola Pendande. The U17 Spanish team member had 17 points, 16 renounds, three assists and three blocks. Cosette Balmy added 14 points, five assists and four steals, and Justina King chipped in with 10 points and five steals.
Heritage (8-5) was led by sophomore Abigail Muse with 10 points.
Ribet (21-2) faces host St. Mary’s on Monday while Heritage is in action at the O’Dowd MLK Showcase against Sacramento.
Other scores:
Bishop Alemany-Mission Hills 90, Vanden-Fairfield 48
Christian Brothers-Sacramento 54, Lincoln-Stockton 40
Mission Hills-San Marcos 51, Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills
