Curtain closes on incredible season of Bay Area high school basketball
The end of a season always brings a mixed bag of emotions, sadness that it's over but thankful that it happened.
This weekend was no different. High school basketball has crossed the finish line, an epic season of great stories, incredible triumphs, amazing performances and heartbreaking defeats.
Oakland had its perfect ending on Friday, a historic day for The Town as two of its teams — one girls, one boys — captured state championships.
The Oakland High boys won the Division III title behind a player who is appropriately named. Money Williams was all money for the Wildcats, the Montana-bound standout scoring 22 points in a 59-43 victory over Buena-Ventura as Oakland celebrated the program's first state title.
The Oakland Tech girls stepped onto the Golden 1 Center court moments after Oakland received its trophy and handled business once again.
Coach Leroy Hurt took offense after winning the Division III title last season, telling reporters in a postgame news conference that his team should have been in a higher bracket.
Elevated to Division I this season, Tech captured its third state championship since 2019 with a 75-52 rout of Santiago-Corona, a crowning achievement for a program that has not lost a playoff game in five years.
“We made history tonight,” senior guard Mari Somvichian said. “That's that. They said we couldn't win in Division I. What are they going to say now?”
Another Bay Area girls team, Archbishop Mitty, put itself in a position to rip the proverbial monkey from its back when the Monarchs stretched their advantage over Etiwanda to seven with 2 ½ minutes to play in the Open Division final Saturday night.
Yours truly was feeling pretty good about the pick I made among reporters in the media dining room an hour or so before the game. I had a good feeling about Mitty all day and thought the San Jose powerhouse would win by 10.
When the lead widened to seven, I started writing a “Mitty finally wins the Open Division championship” story because, well, we publish online right when the game ends.
But just as I finished the headline, Etiwanda started a stunning comeback that culminated with Jada Sanders grabbing her only rebound of the game and immediately putting up a shot from near the basket that beat the buzzer, giving the Southern California powerhouse a 69-67 victory.
Mitty has won six state championships under longtime coach Sue Phillips, including a Division I crown during a 31-0 season in 1998-99 when there was no Open Division.
But since the California Interscholastic Federation added a bracket reserved for the state's best teams in 2013, Mitty is 0-3 in Open championship games.
Saturday's outcome might have been the hardest of them all, a painful turn of events when the trophy was in the team's grasp.
“Got to credit Etiwanda for their resolve in this basketball game and the way in which they continued to persevere,” Phillips said.
Jubilee on the Etiwanda side, tears and heartbreak on the Mitty side.
That was the final image of a basketball game this season that included a Bay Area team, emotional snapshots that make high school sports so pure and so great.
Phillips said she was heartbroken not for the loss but because she was saying goodbye to another group of seniors.
“I am certainly going to miss them,” she said. “I love coaching them.”
Given that junior playmaker Morgan Cheli and freshman center McKenna Woliczko — who combined for 42 points on Saturday — will be back next season, Mitty could get another shot at the Open title a year from now.
Phillips wasn't ready to discuss the outlook for what will be her 31st season at Mitty.
“I need to let this loss sit and celebrate our seniors,” she said. “I'll look to next year when the time comes.”
The night before Mitty's loss, Granada boys coach Quaran Johnson sat in that same postgame news conference room at Golden 1 Center, the hurt in his voice after the Livermore school lost to Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks 67-58 in the Division I final.
“I don't know about that other locker room, but these kids are like family to me,” he said.
Saturday, the Half Moon Bay boys — a team its coach said uplifted the community in the wake of a mass shooting that rocked the small coastal town in January — played maybe the most inspiring quarter of the weekend.
A heavy underdog against Valencia in the Division IV final, Half Moon Bay went toe-to-toe against the stronger opponent, taking a page out of “Hoosiers” to end the opening period tied 2020.
But when 6-foot-8 junior Jaeden Hutchins was unable to return after the first quarter because of a foot injury, Half Moon Bay's hopes for an upset quickly disappeared.
Valencia won 89-59.
But the result did not take away from all that Half Moon Bay achieved in its improbable run to Sacramento, one that included four road victories in the regionals.
“What they've done is bigger than basketball,” Half Moon Bay coach John Parsons said. “I don't even think they really have a clue yet how big of an impact and how big of a thing that was for our community. Very proud of these guys.”
The curtain closed on the high school season a few hours later, a 3½-month roller coaster ride of emotions ending with some sadness and — as always — an eye toward what is to come when the games return in late November.
At Golden 1 Center in Sacramento BOYS
Open Division Saturday's state final
Division I Friday's state final
Division II Saturday's state final
Division III Friday's state final
Division IV Saturday's state final
Division V Friday's state final
GIRLS
Open Division Saturday's state final