Northern California Girls Basketball Rankings
(Includes results for games through March 21)
(Previous ranking in parenthesis)
1. (1) St. Mary’s-Stockton 33-1
The Rams are gunning for an eighth state title and first in the Open Division and head coach Tom Gonsalves is going for his seventh crown – and what’s scary is Gonsalves’ roster of 14 girls has 12 underclass players and no doubt is going to be even stronger next year. In the NorCal Open semifinal St. Mary’s was tested a second time by Sacred Heart Cathedral after posting a 70-65 win at Delta College after beating the Irish in early January 74-68 in San Francisco. The CIF Northern Regional title game at Sleep Train Arena wasn’t as close as the Rams went out to a 44-29 halftime lead and coasted home to a 67-52 victory over Miramonte. “It was a combination of us shooting the ball very well and our defense limited the touches of (Sabrina) Ionescu,” Gonsalves said. Junior sharpshooter Kat Tudor was 5-of-9 from beyond the arc and now has reached the magic 100 three-pointers mark this season at 101 – and she’s now only five treys away at 295 from the 300-career milestone mark. Tudor led the way with 16 points, fellow junior Mi’Cole Cayton added 11 points and seven rebounds, and Cal-Hi Sports State Freshman of the Year hot candidate Aquira DeCosta chipped in with 10 points and six boards. Now the big question is will the swarming defense of St. Mary’s be able to duplicate the effort against Katie Lou Samuelson and the rest of the Mater Dei-Santa Ana cast in the Open Division title game.
2. (2) Miramonte-Orinda 30-3*
The bottom line is the top team in the Bay Area was overmatched against St. Mary’s in the NorCal Open title game, but in reality few gave the girls from the small community of Orinda much of a chance against the state’s top team. With its depth and ability to double and triple-team Cal-Hi Sports 2014 State Sophomore of the Year and USA Team member Sabrina Ionescu, the Mats leading scorer was held to 11 points (12 rebounds) on 3-of-15 shooting and 1-of-6 from 3-point range. Still, after all is said and done the Mats have made it to the NorCal Regional Title game two-straight years – and yes they have Ionescu, but head coach Kelly Sopak has done a remarkable job putting the pieces together. The good news for Mats fans is only one senior will graduate, and Ionescu will have junior Keana Delos Santos (17 points, 10 rebounds versus St. Mary’s), junior Uriah Howard (11/12 against St. Mary’s) and budding freshman guard Claire Steele, plus others, back next season..
3. (3) Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco 18-11*
In two losses to top-ranked St. Mary’s no one played the Rams tougher than the Irish who lost by six in January and 70-65 in the NorCal Open semifinals. The girls took some lumps but delivered more and the way they played this season is a testament to the work of head coach LyRyan Russell in getting the girls rolling in the playoffs. After a blowout loss to arch rival St. Ignatius in early February, the Irish girls won 8-straight before the season ending loss to St. Mary’s, including avenging the SI loss en route to the CIF Central Coast Section Open title. A’Shanti Coleman is off to Arizona but super sophomore Iimar’i Thomas (16.7 ppg) is back.
4. (7) Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland 24-9
The Dragons made the biggest move up by any of the Cal-Hi Sports ranked teams after moving up from No. 12 to No. 8 and getting a three-spot bump here. They lost by six to Miramonte in the CIFNCS D3 final but they have a split with Sacred Heart Cathedral when Cal-bound Asha Thomas was out, However with Thomas starting to play better each game, she looked her best all season against Vanden in the Division III NorCal final, and the result is O’Dowd put on a clinic in an easy 72-55 win. They now deserve to assume Vanden’s previous spot and fall in behind the Irish team they split with. A good sign for Dragons fans besides the re-emergence of Thomas is the play of sophomore Myah Pace. She had a double-double 18 points and 10 rebounds in the Vanden win. O’Dowd will need to continue solid play to beat Brea-Olinda-Brea and deliver the school and head coach Malik McCord a third state championship. One thing to note is the easy D3 NorCal title-game win was over a Vanden team that had a 12-point win over Brea-Olinda at the West Coast Jamboree.
5. (5) St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 22-7*
The Wildcats were a 12-point loser to Miramonte in the NorCal Open semis and based on an overall resume that saw them as a top 10 team the entire season get to hold tight in what looks like will be a top 10 finish. This was the year for St. Ignatius and although they didn’t deliver a CIFCCS open Division title they did win the La Jolla Country Day Sweet 16, finished as runner-up to St. Mary’s in the prestigious Platinum Division of the West Coast Jamboree and had the best finish in the rankings in school history. Sydney Raggio is off to St. Mary’s College and Josie Little to Columbia, and other senior talent will also graduate making next year a question mark.
6. (6) Pinewood-Los Altos Hills 24-4*
The season ended for head coach Doc Scheppler’s girls two weeks ago with an overtime loss to a Miramonte-Orinda team that reached the NorCal Open Division regional finals before losing to No. 1 St. Mary’s. Before that, Pinewood reached the CCS Open Division finals where it lost by two points to Sacred Heart Cathedral. All in all it was a great season for the defending Division V state champions who now have to watch as the Eastside Prep team they defeated three times gets a shot at defending their title for the West Bay – Foothill League as well as Northern California.
7. (4) Vanden-Fairfield 30-4*
The Vikings had to drop three spots after their 72-55 loss to Bishop O’Dowd in the NorCal Division III regional finals, but in the state rankings the fall right to a spot ahead of Brea Olinda due to a 12-point head-to-head win over the Ladycats. Before their season-ending loss to the Dragons, the Vikings defeated Acalanes-Lafayette 75-44 behind 23 points from Kiana Moore and 16 points from Pepperdine-bound Kayla Blair
8. (8) Eastside Prep-East Palo Alto 25-5
It wasn’t a particularly pretty game but the Panthers neutralized Valley Christian-Dublin star Nina Bessolo and Arizona-bound Destiny Graham (nine points, 17 rebounds) controlled the paint while Brije Byers (19 points) was the game’s only double-figure scorer in a 36-28 NorCal D5 title-game victory that was pretty much over after Eastside led 13-4 after one quarter. They hold tight here but the showing by Eastside in the CCS Open Division was the reason for a two-spot bump to No. 14 in the state rankings. Despite not being state-ranked La Jolla Country Day-La Jolla could be a very formidable opponent particularly if Mai-Loni Henson (15 points, 17 rebounds in SoCal win over Bishop’s-La Jolla) continues to play well and highly-regarded 6-foot-2 sophomore Alaysia Styles has another game like she did against cross-town Bishop’s in the SoCal D5 75-56 title-game victory when she went for 25 points and 15 rebounds.
9. (10) Archbishop Mitty-San Jose 24-6
The Monarchs are back in familiar territory as head coach Sue Phillips will look for her sixth state championship this week as Mitty will take on state No. 19 Mark Keppel of Alhambra in the CIF Division II state championship on Saturday afternoon. After a dominating 68-24 win over Presentation-San Jose (same team that upset Carondelet-Concord in its previous game), the Monarchs defeated Dublin 63-49 last Saturday morning at Sleep Train Arena to earn their spot in the state finals. Sophomore Heleyna Hill had a game-high 24 points as Mitty turned a 30-26 halftime deficit into a 42-30 lead with a 16-0 run to start the second half.
10. (14) McClatchy-Sacramento 26-7
The Sacramento Bee top team and new top team from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section earned it on the court. The Lions’ 78-55 loss to No. 1 St. Mary’s of Stockton in the CIFSJS D1 title game doesn’t look any worse, or in some cases is better, than what other ranked teams have done versus Rams, including the Modesto Christian team they jumped. With that loss and a loss to Pinewood in mid-January, and since the team has been healthy, McClatchy is 22-2 since back-to-back losses to O’Dowd and St. Ignatius at the West Coast Jamboree when the team was still not at full strength. Serra-Gardena, McClatchy’s opponent in the D1 state final, does have 10 losses, but is ranked higher for now due to having more wins against other ranked teams. Both broke in as newcomers with McClatchy No. 18 and Serra a spot above them.
11. (9) Modesto Christian-Modesto 27-5*
The Crusaders drop two spots to make room for the Mitty and McClatchy teams still in action for a state title. Falling in behind a McClatchy team that had a 23-point loss to No. 1 St. Mary’s seems correct since MC had a 26-point loss to St. Mary’s during the regular season and a 25-point loss in the playoffs.
12. (11T) Dublin 28-4*
The Gaels have earned just enough after a 14-point loss to Mitty in the NorCal D2 title game to break the tie with a Salesian team that had a 20-point loss to Mitty during the regular season. For Dublin it was arguably the greatest season in school history and put the program and head coach Trisha Campbell on the California girls basketball radar screen.
13. (11T) Salesian-Richmond 28-4*
The season ended in a 14-point NorCal Open Division loss to St. Ignatius for the defending Northern Regional Open Division champions, but it was still a solid campaign for a team many thought would be down with the graduation of Minyon Moore’s big sister Mariya Moore, now starring at Louisville. Senior Kian McNair went for 30 points and star junior Moore was slightly under her per game average with 16 points but the rest of the team could only muster 14 points in the St. Ignatius loss.
14. (13) St. Mary’s-Berkeley 23-9*
The season ended two weeks ago in a 69-54 Open Division loss to Sacred Heart Cathedral. St. Mary’s really had no stinker losses and they had wins over Vanden, Clovis West-Fresno, Eastside Prep, Berkeley, and they took 1-of-3 from the Salesian team they fall in behind.
15. (15T) Brookside Christian-Stockton 23-3
Brookside gets to stand alone in the final expanded spot and moves ahead of a Berkeley team it was tied with that had upset them earlier in the year when they were much higher in the rankings both here and in the state. In a 53-45 NorCal Division IV title game victory over Piedmont it was Washington-bound Aarion McDonald working her magic after finishing with 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Florida Atlantic-commit Ra’Kyra Gabriel added a double-double 15 points and 10 rebounds with five blocks and three assists, and Ariana Vaughn also had a double-double after finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Brookside will be in very tough against two-time defending state champion (D4 last year and D5 two years ago) and state No. 6 Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth
The rest
16. (21) Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills 27-5*
17T. (15T) Berkeley 23-10*
17T. (15T) Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa 26-7*
17T. (15T) Piedmont 21-12*
20. (19) Scotts Valley 25-6*
21. (20) Carondelet-Concord 26-4*
22. (22) Pittsburg 25-7*
23. (24) Bradshaw Christian-Sacramento 23-10*
24. (25) James Logan-Union City 25-6*
25T. (23) Presentation-San Jose 14-15*
25T. (NR) Valley Christian-Dublin 31-4*
Dropped out: None
On the Bubble
Acalanes-Lafayette 23-8*, Antelope 27-3*, Arcata 20-11*, Central Valley-Shasta Lake 25-6*, Clayton Valley-Concord 24-8*, Davis 27-4*, Del Oro-Loomis 24-7*, Durham 24-4*, Enterprise-Redding 22-6*, Hillsdale-San Mateo 21-10*, Kimball-Tracy 30-2*, Lincoln-San Francisco 23-10*, Lincoln-Stockton 23-5*, Lowell-San Francisco 19-8*, Menlo-Atherton 20-9*, Menlo-Atherton-Atherton 24-7*, Moreau Catholic-Hayward 20-10*, North Salinas-Salinas 24-3*, Notre Dame-Belmont 14-15*, Oakland 23-7*, Oakland Tech (Oakland) 21-9*, Palo Alto 22-5*, Patterson 27-5*, Pleasant Grove-Elk Grove 22-7*, Pleasant Valley-Chico 21-7*, Rio Linda 26-7*, Sacramento 18-10*, Saint Francis-Mountain View 14-15*, St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda 21-13*, Shasta-Redding 22-7*, University-San Francisco 24-10*, Valley Christian-San Jose 14-14*
(*Season complete)
