CIF Central Coast Section Girls Open Division
Prep2Prep NorCal No. 4 Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) 24-2 versus No. 8 Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 16-10, Friday 6:00 p.m. at Santa Clara University
A lot of girls basketball fans wondered how Cal-Hi Sports No. 14 Sacred Heart Cathedral could continue to hang around in the rankings with so many losses, but when you look at the Irish girls overall resume and what they’ve done, frankly it should be no huge surprise they’ve advanced to the title game.
The problem for the Irish girls has been consistency. They have a few stinker losses but one of them was not the 74-68 home defeat to state No. 2 St. Mary’s-Stockton. Besides knocking off a previous state No. 4 St. Ignatius-San Francisco team they went 2-1 against this season, they also split with state-ranked Archbishop Mitty-San Jose as well.
One thing to look at on the up-and-down season is the Irish losing 61-48 at Pinewood, but that was almost three months ago.
Pinewood, on the other hand, has been a model of consistency. The defending CIF Division V state champion Panthers only losses are by 13 points on the road at state No. 6 Miramonte, and by seven points to St. Ignatius at the La Jolla Country Day Sweet 16 tournament in early December.
Since the Miramonte loss they’ve had three wins over arch rival and Open semifinalist Eastside Prep-East Palo Alto with two being real close, including the 47-45 semifinal victory on Tuesday. Eastside just beat St. Ignatius 54-51 in the CCS Open third-place game and took down Mitty in the first round.
Mixed in amongst 18-straight wins is a 15-point win over state No. 8 and CIF North Coast Section Division II top-seed and finalist Carondelet-Concord and a 78-55 pasting of CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I finalist McClatchy-Sacramento.
Pinewood is definitely ticketed for the Open Division win or lose but SHC could be going as well, particularly if they win. This game will be closer than last time with SHC Arizona-bound Ashanti Coleman playing real well right now.
The Pinewood senior duo of UC San Diego-bound Marissa Hing and Buffalo-committed Gabi Bade, plus junior Chloe Eackles and freshman sensation Stella Kailahi and others, makes the Panthers deeper, however Kailahi could be out or slowed due to a knee injury suffered in the semifinals.
Despite only being a freshman, Kailahi actually leads Pinewood in scoring and rebounding with 12.4 and 8.2 per game averages, respectively. While only being 5-foot-10 she also provides a presence in the paint and has been unafraid to mix it up with older bigger girls.
"She's doing better. Nothing serious. We'll know if she's playing at 2:30. But she's definitely available next week," texted Pinewood head coach and Cal-Hi Sports 2014 State Coach of the Year Doc Scheppler Friday morning on the status of Kailahi.
At 2:00 the word from Doc came down. "Wont start but will play."
The prediction on Cal-Hi Sports of Pinewood 61, Sacred Heart Cathedral 53 was made without knowledge of the Kailahi situation. With her playing effectively and the other pieces of the puzzle working well, that score could be about right. If not, the Irish could very well add Pinewood to their list of upset victims.
