LOS ALTOS HILLS – Two top notch teams meeting in a nonleague matchup the day before section playoff pairings are announced is a rarity.
Nonetheless, that didn’t stop Prep2Prep CIF North Coast Section top-ranked Miramonte-Orinda from hitting the road for a game against P2P CIF Central Coast Section No. 2 Pinewood.
The two tangled to stay sharp and prepare for their respective postseason runs. In the end it was Miramonte (26-0) coming away with a resounding 73-57 road victory.
"The mere fact this game was scheduled is a testament to both teams," Miramonte Coach Kelly Sopak remarked. "Not many top teams in the state or even the country would schedule a game like this so close to the playoffs.”
The match-up was between two teams that like to shoot from long range, and although Pinewood is a little more known for its 3-point shooting, Miramonte more than held its own with nine made treys to 12 for the hosts.
Senior guard Keana Delos Santos led all scorers with 23 points including five of eight shooting on three-pointers.
Sabrina Ionescu, a USA Basketball team member and the ESPN top rated senior guard in the nation was a bit cold, and didn’t connect from outside the arc, but still managed 20 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and three steals. Her ball handling skills keyed a 7-0 run that wiped out an early 18-13 deficit. She also led a 13-0 third-quarter run that gave Miramonte a 55-38 lead. Ionescu continued to dominate to the final buzzer with nine points in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Claire Steele had a solid game on both ends of the court and finished with 12 points. Senior forward Uriah Howard had 11 rebounds and sophomore Jordyn Bryant came off the bench to grab eight rebounds for a Miramonte team that controlled the paint and enjoyed a 49-26 advantage on the boards.
“Not a lot of teams will have a big game like this right before the playoffs but Coach Kelly had confidence in us and we were really prepared,” Delos Santos told Prep2Prep.
Pinewood (20-4) a Division V enrollment school from the CIF Central Coast Section was facing a Division III school, and the result was the superior depth of Miramonte caused the Panthers to run out of gas against the deeper visitors from the CIF North Coast Section.
Freshman Hannah Jump had a strong outing and led Pinewood with 18 points including five 3-pointers. Erin Poindexter-McCan knocked down three shots from outside the arc and finished with 13 points.
As for Jump, she didn’t look like a freshman at all against one of the nation’s top teams and turned some heads with her performance.
“We were very pumped up and all of us were ready to play. We wanted to put it all out on the floor,” Jump remarked.
A lot of the reason Pinewood had trouble was the defense of Miramonte, particularly Ionescu. Despite not having a great shooting night her energy level was very high and she was the sparkplug of the defense, flying at the Pinewood three-point shooters all game.
“We were closing out on shooters and playing up tempo,” Ionescu said. “We’ve played them before and we know their game plan.”
Despite jumping out to an early lead Pinewood Coach Doc Scheppler, a winner of six small school state titles at the Panthers helm, just didn’t have the pieces to maintain momentum against a legitimate top national team like Miramonte.
“The game plan was good but their depth fatigued us. We definitely got tired but it was still a great high school game," Pinewood Coach Doc Scheppler remarked.
Miramonte is almost assuredly the top seed in the NCS Division III playoffs while Pinewood is likely the second seed behind Archbishop Mitty-San Jose in the CCS Open Division playoffs. Seedings/placements will be released on Sunday.
Note: Correspondent Scott Giorgianni contributed to this game feature
