SACRAMENTO - The way CIF Southern Regional Division I champion and top-seeded Bishop Montgomery started out in its title game matchup with Northern Regional D1 champion and second-seeded Bishop O’Dowd, it was looking like the Knights girls were going to run away and hide.
To their credit, after falling behind by 23 near the end of the first half, O’Dowd could have totally folded, but they didn’t and fought back to make it a more respectable outcome. But Bishop Montgomery ultimately prevailed 52-40.
With the victory Bishop Montgomery (23-5) wins its seventh state championship in eight appearances, but the six previous titles have been in enrollment-based divisions and all were in Division III with 2003 the last time they captured a crown.
“I just have three words for tonight’s game: We did that,” said a grinning second-year head coach Rheina Ale, a 2008 graduate of Bishop Montgomery, and an outstanding player in her four-year varsity career. Ale took over for 2003 graduate and star Noelle Quinn who moved on to the WNBA as a head coach. Ale has certainly carried on from Quinn and rekindled the tradition of Knights girls basketball.
Bishop Montgomery junior standout Jordin Blackmon scored the game’s first six points, and after hitting a three-pointer from behind the NBA three-point arc, she had 11 points in the first 3:29 of the first quarter and the Knights had a 13-3 lead the Dragons never recovered from.
O’Dowd found away to slow Blackmon down, but she still finished with a game-high 15 points plus six rebounds. Senior Cyriah Coleman had two of the three Knights three-pointers and added 14 points and six rebounds.
“We let the momentum get to us in the first half, especially when the ball wasn’t going in the basket,” said Bishop O’Dowd head coach Malik McCord.
Sophomore Jayla Stokes led Bishop O’Dowd (24-7) with 11 points and six rebounds but she was the only player to reach double figure scoring.
