ORINDA, CA – The first Contra Costa Challenge in what organizers hope becomes an annual event had a lot of home cooking as host and Prep2Prep North Coast Section No. 5 Miramonte (19-3) showed they will be a force to reckoned with in the upcoming NCS Open Division playoffs after a convincing 79-63 victory on Saturday over No. 3 Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland in the marquee match-up of the inaugural event.
Junior Jordan Allred and senior Erin Tarasow lit up the scoreboard with 30 and 27 points, respectively, with their half totals neatly nearly opposite; Tarasow had 20 in the first half and Allred had 19 in the second. Allred had two three-pointers with six rebounds, five steals and three assists. Tarasow nailed five three-pointers and added seven rebounds.
Mia Mastrov looked fully recovered from the viral infection that plagued her for several weeks. The junior standout had a double-double 13 points and 10 rebounds with three assists and three steals.
“We were waiting for this game all year, and I think our mentality was set,” Allred commented. “We rebounded and that’s our main key. We just have got to keep at it. Kelly will call plays for everybody and we just pick each other up all the time.”
“The key for us was getting off to a good start, and how we closed out the third quarter,” Miramonte coach Kelly Sopak stated. “We knew they would make a run but we closed strong and won the quarter, which was huge. Bishop O’Dowd knows us as well as anyone so we simplified our approach…(It) helped us understand our assignments.”
Bishop O’Dowd (14-6) fell behind 23-10 after the first quarter and trailed by 19 at the half. The Dragons never cut the lead to single digits after the Mats jumped on top 21-10.
Kennedy Johnson was on minutes restriction due to injury, and fans might have wished she played more given how effective she was in that time.
Johnson tallied 17 points, six rebounds, four steals, and two blocks, with the strongest stretch coming in the fourth quarter when she was given more time on the floor than in the previous three quarters. Skylar McGlockton also had a big game for O’Dowd with 13 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
Johnson may have been limited to 20 minutes because of a knee problem, but Miramonte was without Leah Sopak, and the Mats senior starting guard is one of the team’s best defenders and an outside shooting threat.
“We’ve got to be consistent,” O’Dowd Coach Malik McCord said when asked what his postgame message was. “Everything we were going over didn’t happen on the floor, like leaving wide open three’s. This is why I scheduled this game before the playoffs, to see where we’re at.”
Of course, the three-point shot was a key part of Miramonte’s attack, and the team cashed in on 10 out of 21 attempts. The Mats also converted 13 of 15 free throw attempts.
O’Dowd was nearly equitable in three-point percentage but took about half the number of tries and was just about equal at the line in makes but not percentage.
“We came out strong,” Tarasow remarked. “We really focused on their rebounding and pushing the ball and getting them tired.”
Noting Johnson’s injury as well as the season-long absence of Kayla Hankins, McCord added “Getting players back and healthy will be great, but at the end of the day when you don’t have them, you’ve got to produce.”
St. Joseph Notre Dame Pilots glide past Clayton Valley
In the nightcap of the Contra Costa Challenge it was a question of who could soar higher, the Ugly Eagles or the Pilots, and as expected it was the Pilots of Prep2Prep North Coast Section top-ranked St. Joseph Notre Dame gliding to an 80-45 victory.
St. Joseph Notre Dame (16-6) only led 22-18 in the early second quarter but from there they exploded for a 26-4 run fueled by lockdown defense that made it 48-22 at the half and more than sealed the deal.
A perfect example of the vise-like defense of St. Joseph Notre Dame is as a team they had 29 steals.
“It wasn’t a perfect game, but the energy and intensity was where I wanted it to be,” St. Joseph Notre Dame Coach Brian Sato remarked.
While the defense was stout the offense had a lot of contributors as well.
Junior Makena Mastora led six St. Joseph Notre Dame players in double-figure scoring with 18 points and eight steals with four rebounds and three assists. Her big sister, senior Malia Mastora added 13 points, six steals, seven rebounds and three assists. Sophomore Talana Lepolo also had 13 points with five assists, four rebounds and two steals. Her older sister, senior Maila Lepolo, added 11 points, four steals, four rebounds and two assists. Senior Sophie Nilsson chipped in with 11 points, five rebounds and four steals, and sophomore Randi Harding came off the bench for 11 points and four steals.
Prep2Prep NCS No. 21 Clayton Valley (14-8) was led by senior Ysobelle Eustaquio with a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds. Senior Ami Barry added 10 points and nine rebounds with three blocks.
The Pilots are now 6-3 under Sato, who took the helm just prior to the MLK weekend after the resignation of Shawn Hipol. They took their lumps against Nevada No; 1 Centennial-Las Vegas and Cal-Hi Sports No. 1 La Jolla Country Day, and then took a trip to Los Angeles where the Cal-Hi Sports No. 10 Pilots lost to No. 6 Windward.
They still have a major test this Saturday at P2P NCS No. 6 Heritage in Brentwood, but the team looks more in sync now than it did two weeks ago, and Sato is getting more used to the role of head coach after being an assistant under Hipol for nine years, the last six including this year at St. Joseph Notre Dame.
“I’m getting more and more comfortable in the role of having to do things that as an assistant I didn’t have to do,” Sato said.
“When I started out it was like substitute teaching,” continued Sato. “Now, we’re starting to get some rhythm and the girls are getting more comfortable with me.”
St. Patrick-St. Vincent outlasts California
Washington-committed senior Tameiya Sadler dominated in every aspect of the St. Patrick-St. Vincent clash with California as the Bruins came away with a 54-48 win.
Sadler tallied 17 points, 15 rebounds, seven steals, five blocks, and five assists for St. Patrick-St. Vincent (15-8), while Kayla Revelo chipped in with 14 points.
A seesaw first half saw the Bruins take a 12-4 lead after one quarter but trail by four at the half.
Revelo knocked down consecutive treys, including one at the buzzer, in the third quarter to take a 42-37 lead.
In the fourth quarter California (13-8) simply did not have enough in the tank to overcome the deficit.
Zeni Purge, who scored 11, had one key stretch in the quarter, and the Bruins held on after back-to-back three’s by Kelly Tumlin sandwiched around a Bruins free throw cut the advantage to four, 50-46, with 2:13 remaining.
Audrey Moulton netted 17 points for California, and Tumlin added 12 all from downtown, but the Grizzlies felt the absence of Erica Adams, who arrived in Orinda with a sore knee and sat out. The loss came on the heels of a very important league win over San Ramon Valley on Friday night. For the Bruins it was their fourth win in five games. California and St. Patrick-St. Vincent entered the game No. 9 and No. 16, respectively, in the Prep2Prep NCS rankings.
“Defensively, (Sadler) was on another level tonight,” St. Patrick-St. Vincent Coach Nadine Walker remarked. “I told them at the last time out, if you sleep on defense, you’re going to lose this game, period.”
“It changes the dynamic of who we are and what we do,” California coach Doug Vanderhorst said of Adams’s absence. “We didn’t expect any one player to step into that position and make it up all at once. The execution and the energy wasn’t there like it was last night.”
American keeps on rolling in defeat of Monte Vista
American may not have as challenging a schedule as some of the other teams to take the court on Saturday at the Contra Costa Challenge, but the Eagles looked solid in a 53-45 win over Monte Vista.
Natalie Kao drained eight three-pointers to account for all of her 24 points, and Dawson Bell added 17 for the Eagles (20-1). Monte Vista (15-5) got 15 points from Sarina Nagra, with the next-highest total of nine by Alexis Woodson.
Neither team was particularly strong in the first quarter, but in the second American began to pull away. At the start of the fourth, the Prep2Prep NCS No. 7 Eagles had a comfortable 36-25 advantage against the No. 22 Mustangs. Monte Vista had its best quarter, and its only period in double digits in the fourth, but American matched it well enough to assure victory.
Kao, a junior guard, had at least one trey in every quarter. Bell had all but two of her total in the second and third quarters combined.
“This is her sixth or seventh game and she’s trying to get into shape, and you saw that today,” American coach Keith Ramee said of Kao, who missed the first part of the season due to injury. “It adds a dimension to us we didn’t have the first 10 games of the season.”
In other games
Campolindo-Moraga (15-8) got 25 points (three three-pointers) from freshman Allie Cummins in a 46-37 victory over Windsor in a morning game that opened the Contra Costa Challenge.
Windsor (4-19) was led by Meredith Gilbertson with 14 points.
Las Lomas-Walnut Creek (10-11) was a 52-40 winner over Skyline-Oakland behind 21 points by junior Rose Morse.
Skyline (2-14) got 16 points from Adira Perkins and 10 points from Karen Fatai.
Bentley-Lafayette (13-8) was a 42-32 winner over Roseland Prep-Santa Rosa behind 11 points apiece from Isabel Chhina (three three-pointers) and Alex Wechser.
Note: Prep2Prep Adult Contributor Scott Giorgianni was the major contributor to the Miramonte, St. Patrick-St. Vincent and American victory stories
