No. 1 seed St. Joseph-Notre Dame-Alameda (22-7) versus No. 3 seed Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (28-2), Friday, 6 pm at St. Mary’s College-Moraga
All season there have been doubters of St. Joseph Notre Dame.
There may have been naysayers but despite getting a new interim head coach in mid-season when assistant Brian Sato took over after Shawn Hipol stepped down, and an 11-day layoff the top two seeds were given in the new 6-team CIF North Coast Section Open Division, the Prep2Prep NCS top-ranked and No. 1 seeded Pilots are into the title game against No. 3 seed Cardinal Newman on Friday night at St. Mary’s College in Moraga.
Sato and his girls punched their ticket on Wednesday with a come from behind 54-48 home victory over fifth-seeded Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland. St. Joseph Notre Dame may have felt the layoff early and trailed by as many as 14 points in the second quarter. In fact, the Pilots trailed after 21-8 after one quarter, then went on a 15-9 run to end the half but still trailed 32-24, they were still behind by eight at 43-35 after three quarters, and were down 48-43 with three minutes, 20 seconds left before scoring the game’s final 11 points.
Talana Lepolo and Malia Mastora both had 11 points, and Makena Mastora came up big late after scoring five of her 10 points in the final 3:50 of the game.
Meanwhile at Pinole Valley High the other Open semifinal was already pretty much concluded and in that one Prep2prep NCS No. 3 ranked and third-seeded Cardinal Newman got a lifetime performance from UC Santa Barbara-bound guard Anya Choice. She finished with a career high 43 points with eight three pointers in a thrilling 64-59 win over P2P NCS No. 2 and second-seeded Salesian.
Newman trailed 26-25 after a first half that saw 15 lead changes and six ties, but from there it was all Choice. Not only did she score all 14 of Newman’s points in the third quarter but the first 23 points of the second half with seven of her three-pointers coming in the final two periods.
Salesian Coach Stephen Pezzola pretty much summed it up with respect to the performance by Choice. “When she got hot we just couldn’t stop her.”
Now, the task of stopping Choice falls to Sato and his girls.
The game will be re-match of last year’s NCS Division 3 semifinal only this time the tables are turned and the game is on the big stage and a neutral site. Last year Newman was the No. 3 seed and St. Joseph Notre Dame was the No. 4 seed when the Pilots came to Santa Rosa and won 54-47 on the road with defense.
Last year St. Joseph Notre Dame used six first quarter steals to take a 13-7 lead that was 23-16 at halftime before they stretched to 39-25 at the end of three quarters and 45-27 with 4:35 left in the final period.
Newman made a 12-2 run but by then the deal was pretty much sealed.
UC Riverside-bound senior Malia Mastora had 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and Talana Lepolo showed why she is one of the top sophomore guards in California by running the point and finishing with 13 points while playing exceptional defense, mostly against Choice.
As for Choice, if the Pilots play her as well as last year they will have a good chance at winning again. Choice led Cardinal Newman with 14 points and three assists, but she was only one of 11 on three pointers, and the double and sometimes triple-teaming of the Pilots clearly had her off her game.
Both teams graduated some senior talent from last year’s team, but a new twist for Newman is they have some height with the addition of Point Loma Nazarene-committed 6-3 senior post Liz Chambers, a transfer from now closed Rincon Valley Christian-Santa Rosa. She only had four points against Salesian, all on free-throws, but she played well against the Prides’ 6-1 post Silvia Fonongaloa and got fouled, and went to the glass hard and finished with eight rebounds.
St. Joseph Notre Dame has a sort of addition in the height department as well. Sophie Nilsson, a 6-0 senior wing that missed her entire junior season is back and averaging around eight points and six rebounds a game. Junior 6-footer Kalia Coverson and 5-11 freshman Eva Levingston will also combine to give Sato some size in the paint.
For Newman they will need to shoot well, and that will mean seniors like Cal State East Bay-committed sharpshooter Christina Bacci will need to be hot, and 5-8 senior Emma Nordby, who was matched up against the Muse sisters of Heritage-Brentwood, and did well despite giving up over 6-inches to both will need to play defense again and make some outside shots. The same holds true for the team’s best defender, junior Aysia Dural.
The game will be the first in a girls/boys Open doubleheader at St. Mary’s with top-seeded Dublin taking on No. 3 seed Bishop O’Dowd in the nightcap for the boys title.
