SAN JOSE — Archbishop Mitty High girls basketball coach Sue Phillips is constantly preaching defense to her team.
“About 75 percent of our practice is based on defense,” Mitty forward Madeline Holland said.
Saturday the Monarchs not only showed their veteran coach that practice makes perfect but also gave their coach another victory in memorable fashion.
Mitty held visiting Valley Christian without a field goal in the first half en route to giving their coach of 24 years her 600th career win as the Monarchs led from start to finish in a 67-36 blowout victory over the Warriors in a West Catholic Athletic League game.
The usually stoic and serious Phillips was all smiles after the game when her team gave her tiara and flowers to commemorate her 600th win.
“It means I’m old,” Phillips joked. “I want to thank my current and former players and coaches that made this all possible. I’m very blessed, I’m at a great school we have a great group of kids that come through here year after year. It’s wonderful to be apart of this school, community and basketball program.”
Phillips’s brand of basketball was on full display with her teams constant on-ball pressure defense and balanced scoring.
Krissy Miyahara scored a team-high 13 points including three 3-pointers as eight of the 10 players on Mitty’s roster scored in the victory.
Holland scored 12 points and had eight rebounds, Haley Jones added 11 points, six rebounds, five steals and two blocks.
Phillips wasn’t sure if this was the first time during her coaching career - one that includes six California Interscholastic Federation state titles - that her team held their opponent without a field goal in a half, but she was sure proud of how they played.
“I don’t know but we did play some pretty good defense that first half,” Phillips said.
Daniella Guglielmo added nine points while post player Tahlia Garza added eight points and eight rebounds.
Mitty — the No. 1 ranked team in the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section top 25 rankings — led 29-6 at the half and never allowed Valley Christian to get within 20 points the entire game.
The Monarchs (13-3, 5-0 WCAL) have now won six straight games.
“It was a real special night considering it was coach Phillips’s 600th win,” Holland said. “As a team we really wanted it for her and we got it.”
Valley Christian (13-4, 2-3) couldn’t come up with an answer against fast and frenetic style of defense Mitty likes to do.
Coming in the Warriors knew they were facing a buzzsaw in Mitty.
“We were playing with house money,” Valley Christian coach Chris McSwain said. “They are the higher ranked team and supposed to win. We just told our girls to go out there and fight. In the first half we just dug ourselves too big of a hole and in the second half we didn’t turn the ball over as much and made some buckets.”
Kyanna Davis was the lone player from Valley Christian to score in double figures. The junior finished with a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds. Caitlin Keding scored six and Emily Ellington had five for the Warriors.
Valley Christian will next face Notre Dame-Belmont, which fell to Sacred Heart Cathedral 65-41 in a WCAL game on Saturday night. The Warriors host the Tigers on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
With Phillips’s 600th win in the books, the Monarchs can focus in on the rest of the season that includes a date Wednesday in San Francisco with their biggest threat in the WCAL Sacred Heart Cathedral (10-6, 5-0) at 7:30 p.m. in a battle of the two remaining undefeated teams in the league.
“They are tough and exceptionally tough at home,” Phillips said of SHC. “We will certainly face a formidable opponent on Wednesday and hopeful to get the next (win).”
Mitty and SHC will come into Wednesday’s contest ranked as the No. 1 and No. 3 ranked teams in the Prep2Prep CCS rankings.
