SACRAMENTO - It was a game of contrasts between CIF Southern Regional Division II champion Harvard-Westlake and CIF NorCal D2 champion Colfax.
Harvard-Westlake (19-18) came into the game with a .500 record and Colfax (34-2) was having its second consecutive 30-win season after a runner-up finish last year in the CIF D3 state championship. But after trailing by 4 at the half, Harvard-Westlake rallied for a 60-45 win to capture the D2 title.
Colfax had not seen anything close to the kind of competition Harvard-Westlake faced. Colfax plays in the small-school Pioneer Valley League where it went 14-0, while Harvard-Westlake plays in one of the state’s toughest League, a Mission League that includes two-time Open Division state champion and 2024 SoCal Open Division runner-up Sierra Canyon, where the Wolverines barely qualified for the playoffs with a 5-5 record and a third-place finish.
Despite those contrasts, Colfax, with a huge throng of fans that made the 50-mile trek west on I-80 to root their girls on, hung with Harvard-Westlake and only trailed 42-40 entering the fourth quarter. That’s when Wolverines junior Deanna Thompson took charge and scored three straight baskets. After a Colfax free throw, Harvard-Westlake scored six straight again with Thompson getting the last basket. With a 54-43 lead at that point the steam was out of Colfax and Harvard-Westlake coasted home.
“We’re finally over .500,” said a grinning Harvard-Westlake head coach Melissa Hearlihy in her opening at the press conference.
Freshman Angelina Habis led Harvard-Westlake with 19 points and seven rebounds, Thompson finished 18 points, six rebounds and four assists, and sophomore Valentina Guerrero had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Colfax got 18 points and 11 rebounds from no-quit junior post Juliette James, and 13 points from junior Kaia Diederichs.
