HAROLD ABEND
Prep2Prep Senior Editor

March 12, 2025

SAN JOSE, Calif. – In years past the state CIF Northern Regional Open championship title game between host and top-seeded Archbishop Mitty and second-seeded Clovis West-Fresno would have been dubbed an old-fashioned “nip-and-tuck” affair, but it modern lingo it was a contest that was back-and-forth and back-and-forth.

In the end, and after 19 lead changes and 16 ties, Archbishop Mitty (27-3) took the final lead of the game at 59-56 on a three-pointer by sophomore Ze’Ni Patterson with 2:14 left to play and then held off Clovis West down the stretch to post a 64-60 victory.

It was the 17th state CIF Northern Regional title for Mitty and head coach Sue Phillips, fifth-straight and sixth overall in the Open Division. The victory sends Phillips her Monarchs to the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Saturday night to face Southern Regional open winner Etiwanda for the CIF Open Division state championship.

With Mitty injured junior superstar and previous Cal-Hi Sports State Freshman and State Sophomore of the Year McKenna Woliczko cheering her teammates on from the bench in street clothes, Mitty needed major contributions from the current starting five, and they got just that.

Freshman Maliya Hunter, who was recently named the West Catholic Athletic Player of the Year, led four Monarchs in double-figure scoring with 15 points (one three-pointer, plus six rebounds. Junior Emma Cook played with high energy on both ends of the court and added 13 points and seven steals. Junior standout Devin Cosgriff had 11 points and four rebounds. Her three-pointer with 1:20 remaining gave Mitty a 62-56 lead and pretty much sealed the deal. Patterson also had 11 points with the one three-pointer plus four rebounds.

Early on Mitty was bothered by the physicality of Clovis West. They missed six layups and were only four-for-eight on the free-throw line in the first half, but their defense kept them close, and after trailing 14-12 after one quarter and 32-30 at the half, Phillips and her staff made the adjustments needed to produce a hard fought victory.

“We didn’t play our best game, but I think that was a function of Clovis West,” Phillips remarked. “They did a really nice job of speeding us up and we were out of sorts offensively.”

“We had way too many turnovers, missed layups, missed free-throws, and we told he kids at halftime that was not going to get it done,” Phillips continued. “So to our credit we just kept defending and got some crucial stops down the stretch.”

After a third quarter that was like a heavyweight boxing match with each team refusing to yield, Mitty actually led 45-43, but before they could put things away there eight lead changes and a tie in the fourth quarter alone, before Patterson’s three-pointer gave Mitty the lead for good.

Clovis West (33-1) saw their dream of an unbeaten season come to an end. The Golden Eagles got 14 points (four three-pointers) from junior Malohni Warren, 12 points from sophomore Ramie Chatman, and 11 points and seven rebounds from UNLV-committed senior post Alexis Swillis, and a lot of her baskets came down low when she muscled home some shots, including a few on offensive rebound putbacks.

Mitty now will get a third straight shot at trying to beat Etiwanda, but it will not be an easy task. Three years ago they lost a heartbreaker at the buzzer, 69-67, and last year they succumbed to Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year and current USC freshman star Kennedy Smith and State Junior of the Year Aliyahna “Puff” Morris.

“We’re getting Etiwanda again,” said Phillips with the kind of look on her face that showed she knows the task at hand, and when asked if she wants them the veteran coach paused and then said. “We want to be in that game, so we’ll go from there.”

The bottom line is Phillips will be facing a team that just knocked off the No. 1 team in the nation when Etiwanda pinned a 67-62 loss on host Ontario Christian-Ontario that reversed a 65-63 defeat they suffered in the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship, and in a game they lost on free-throws in the final seconds.

Smith is gone but Morris is not, and so far in the playoff run she has staked a claim to follow in the footsteps of Smith and completing the four-peat by adding a Ms. Basketball title to the freshman, sophomore and junior State Player of the Year honors. Against Ontario Christian she had a team-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-for-8 on three-pointers, plus she played exceptional defense, which is hers and Etiwanda’s trademark. Morris had 32 points with three three-pointers on 9-of-19 from the field in a 67-57 SoCal Open semifinal win over Mater Dei-Santa Ana.

When reached by cell after his team had defeated Ontario Christian, Etiwanda head coach Stan Delus had this to say about the performance of Morris, who took on sophomore sensation Kaleena Smith, the 2024 State Freshman of the Year who before last night was not only the leading candidate for Ms. Basketball but was being mentioned as a possible national player of the year..

“She was a monster for us tonight,” Delus remarked. “She defended Kaleena (Smith) straight up in the fourth quarter, hit key shots and timely threes. She’s your Ms. Basketball.”

Maybe?. But there’s still one more game left.

Many thought that when Woliczko went down many though Mitty was vulnerable to be supplanted as the top team in Northern California, but the Monarchs answered the call.

After Woliczko injured her knee in a 61-44 loss to Ontario Christian two weeks after beating them 59-34 to take over the top spot not only in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings, but in the Maxpreps national rankings as well, they won three West Catholic Athletic League games handily, but when they went back east and played national powers Sidwell Friends of Washington D.C. and then New Jersey Morris Catholic, they lost both, but a sign of things to come was the fact they only lost 61-57, and Morris Catholic is 27-0 and with Ontario Christian losing they likely will move up from No. 2 to No. 1 in the Maxpreps rankings.

The bottom line is there is a game to be played at 6pm on Saturday in Sacramento at the Golden 1 Arena and Phillips and her Monarchs wanted to be in that game, and they are.