Mitty to take on Etiwanda for state crown
Mitty girls basketball coach Sue Phillips had to chuckle when told that the Monarchs caught a break when EtiwandaRancho Cucamonga beat national No. 1 and previously unbeaten Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth 55-54 on Tuesday in Southern California’s Open Division title game.
Mitty (28-2) takes on Etiwanda (31-3) for the state crown at 6 p.m. Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
“So instead of preparing for the No. 1 team in the country, now we get the No. 2 or 3 team in the nation,” Phillips said. “They beat Sierra Canyon last year and returned just about everyone off that team and they beat Sierra Canyon one out of two times this year.
“At the end of the day, we’re still dealing with a Goliath. Our group wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s still going to be a clash of the titans.”
In her 30th season, Phillips has won 789 games (against 136 losses) with six state crowns and a state-record 15 NorCal titles. At Mitty she has coached some of Northern California greatest players and athletes including current Stanford AllAmerica guard Haley Jones, WNBA All-Star Danielle Robinson and Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings.
Phillips also has coached many of the country’s best for USA Basketball, including in her current assignment as head coach of the 2023 USA Women’s Nike Hoop Summit Team after leading the 2022 USA U17 World Cup Team to a gold medal in Hungary.
She knows talent when she sees it. When asked to assess her team in comparison to Etiwanda and Sierra Canyon, she said: “We’re pretty good, too.”
The Monarchs have won 21 straight by an average of 37 points, its margin when it beat Salesian-Richmond 86-49 in the Northern California Open championship game.
Her current team might Phillips’ best, largely because of the elite two-player combination of 6-foot-2 junior guard Morgan Cheli, a 5-star recruit, and 6-2 freshman forward McKenna Woliczko, who this week received her eighth college offer, this one from USC.
Her first offer came from Pacific as an eighth-grader, but after her performance at the Phoenix Nike Tournament of Champions in December, she has picked up offers from UCLA, Ohio State, Arizona, Florida, Vanderbilt and Stanford.
Woliczko, whose dad Aaron is a senior associate commissioner of the West Coast Conference and is a former college coach, was pressed into a more formidable role after Cheli, ranked the No. 14 junior nationally by Prospects Nation, went down with a foot injury in early December.
Woliczko didn’t blink, taking the reins as the team’s top scorer and rebounder at better than 20 points and 10 boards per game.
She was even better against Salesian with a 29-point, 21-rebound effort.
“It was an incredible performance,” Phillips told reporters after the game. “Offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, blocked shots. She scored in transition, in traffic, from the high post. She’s quite a talent.”
So is Cheli, who has more than 40 scholarship offers from Division I schools, including UConn and South Carolina. She returned two weeks ago and is fully healthy. She had 15 points and eight rebounds Tuesday.
“Their chemistry as people and basketball players is impeccable,” Phillips said. “Both have great hands, skills, basketball IQs and are each intensely competitive. They feed off each other. They celebrate each other’s greatness. There is zero jealousy or resentment.”
On top of its formidable size (eight Monarchs are at least 6 feet tall), Mitty has depth. Three other seniors — Maya Hernandez (Loyola Marymount), Elle Hanson (Point Loma) and Layla Woods (Chapman) — have college offers. Two junior transfers, Elana Weisman and Belle Bramer, likely will play in college as well.
Last year’s team also took a 21-game win streak into the state title game, only to lose 85-61 to Sierra Canyon.
“There is zero trepidation, no hesitation or uncertainty what we’re trying to accomplish,” Phillips said. “We had high expectations heading into last year’s game and fell short. The good news is we’re back, most of those kids returned and we have some great additions.”