SAN JOSE, Calif. – The nation’s number one team welcomed back Connecticut-bound senior Morgan Cheli and Lehigh-committed senior Belle Bramer, both who have been out due to injury.
Even so, despite Cheli coming on in the second half, it was sophomore sensation McKenna Woliczko and Bucknell-bound senior Elana Weisman that did a lot of the heavy lifting in a state CIF Northern Regional Open Division semifinal 82-71 victory by top-seed and host Archbishop Mitty (29-0) over No. 5 seed and a no quit Folsom.
“That’s kind of what we expected. It was going to be heavyweight battle between two really good teams,” said Mitty head coach Sue Phillips. “It was great for us to be tested in a way that we have to fight and claw for that ‘W’ on the both sides of the ball.”
“We certainly didn’t close to our defensive goal tonight,” Phillips continued. “We gave up way too many points and turned the ball over way too much today. It was out first game in over a week with some different combinations of players, and we’ll clean up some things, but the good news is we scored at a pretty high clip today.”
Woliczko, the 2023 Cal-Hi Sports State Freshman of the Year, led all scorers and rebounders with 28 points and nine rebounds with a steal.
“I just know that we have a team on our back and everyone has a role,” Woliczko said humbly. “With Morgan and Belle back it’s a blessing and were grateful that they’re back, but everyone has to do their own thing.”
“Folsom is a great team. They’re physical, they’re fast, and it was definitely great to play against them,” Woliczko continued.
Hot shooting Weisman did most of her damage in the first half where she had 14 of her 16 points and all four three-pointers. She also had eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Cheli, who had her minutes limited to a little over 20 and did not start, finished with 19 points (three three-pointers) and five rebounds, plus three assists and a steal, with 13 points coming in a second half where Folsom just would not go away.
Freshman Tee McCarthy started and gave the Monarchs a boost sharing the point with Cheli. She finished with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Bramer had less minutes than Cheli and chipped in with five points, two assists and a steal
Junior Jada Tupou led Folsom (26-6) with 19 points, plus four rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Cal-bound Kamryn Mafua was held scoreless in the first but came on strong in the final two quarters for finish with 15 points including two three-pointers, with six rebounds, five of which came in the second half, plus two assists.
Two other Bulldogs were in double-figure scoring. Junior Sophia Mindermann had 14 points and senior Ella Uriarte added 11 points including two three-pointers.
With Cheli and Bramer watching the opening tip-off from the bench the Monarchs fell behind 5-2, their largest deficit, but got it to 8-8 when the two stars were inserted by head coach Sue Phillips with 5:27 left in the first quarter. From there it was tied twice at 10-10 and 12-12, but a 12-0 Mitty run set the tone, although Folsom had a 5-2 run from there to trail 26-19 after one.
The second quarter saw Mitty build the lead to its largest margin at 48-31, and after Folsom scored the final two baskets of the half they still had a comfortable 48-35 lead.
Folsom and Mafua in particular came out of the locker to start the third quarter with a completely different energy than the first half. Mafua connected on both three-pointers and had 10 points during a stretch where the Bulldogs cut it to 56-50, but Cheli answered with seven straight points to get the lead back to 13 points, but Folsom refused to fold and only trailed 65-57 heading to the final period.
Cheli hit a three-pointer to open the fourth to get the lead to 11 but Folsom still would not go away. They got as close as six points three times from that point on, including 77-71 on a steal and basket by Tupou with 2:04 left, but Cheli hit Woliczko with a perfect pass for a bucket, and Mitty finally put Folsom away by holding them scoreless after the Tupou basket.
“It was nice to come back for sure,” Cheli said with a huge grin.
“We needed to lock in and focus on Mitty does and we were able to execute down the stretch,” Cheli continued. “We played really well off each other.”
Similar to the Folsom 54-49 win over Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa in the quarterfinals, the Bulldogs were out rebounded by a large margin, but while it didn’t hurt them in that game the 32-19 disadvantage was a factor against Mitty.
“I liked the way we hit the boards, particularly in the first half,” Phillips remarked. “In the second half even with them throwing multiple bodies at McKenna, and she still almost had a double-double and 28 points in a NorCal semifinal, and then you have Mo (Cheli), who was on minutes restriction, came in and impacted the game in a major way.”
The season is over for Folsom but despite being an obvious underdog to the top in the nation, and still putting up one heck of a fight, Bulldogs head coach Lynn Wolking was far from satisfied.
“We came to win. We didn’t come to come close,” Wolking remarked. “We’re a competitive team, I’m proud of my girls. They did a great job and hung in there all game. A couple of possessions and we were right there. We wanted to see what Mitty could do when the game was tight, because they don’t get many tight games.”
“If you hang around long enough you start to get some hope,” Wolking continued. “We believed and we were right there.”
Mitty now moves on to the NorCal Open title game where it will host No. 2 seed Clovis West-Fresno, a 69-57 winner over St. Mary’s-Stockton. The game will be a rematch of last year’s title game won by Mitty, 63-43.
