Salesian takes control late, beats San Ramon Valley for NCS girls Open title
Salesian High was pushed to the brink by San Ramon Valley Friday night, but wound up making history.
The Pride won its first-ever North Coast Section Open Division title with a 59-55 win over the Wolves at St. Mary's College.
“Heart and soul,” Salesian coach Steve Pezzola said after an awards ceremony at midcourt. “Every play, we never give up. We've been down a few points at times this year, but we have poise.”
Top-seeded Salesian (25-4) advances to the NorCal Open Division playoffs against a team yet to be determined, while No. 2 San Ramon Valley (26-4) awaits its assignment — whether it be the Open Division or a lower one.
Makiah Asidanya led Salesian with 18 points, with Madalyn Kanazawa adding 13 and Ayla Rege nine points on a trio of 3-point baskets in the second quarter. For San Ramon Valley, point guard Sierra Chambers and Anneka Lupinek had 15 points each.
The game was tight throughout, with sticky defense on both sides. San Ramon Valley never led by more than six points and Salesian never led by more than five.
Although Pezzolo said Salesian isn't a team that relies heavily on the 3-point shot, the Pride had eight of them in the first half to help account for a 32-30 halftime lead.
San Ramon Valley was still within 44-43 at the end of the third quarter and surged to a 5247 lead in the fourth with 4:48 let after a pair of free throws from Chambers.
From there, the Wolves scored only three points the rest of the way while Salesian controlled things inside and ground out a difficult win.
Asidanya's drive put Salesian up 53-52 with 3:10 left, with Chambers scoring on a drive with 1:28 remaining to give San Ramon Valley its last lead at 54-53.
Then Nyana Asiasi scored on a follow for a 55-54 lead, D'yani Bernstine scored on a layup with 53.3 seconds to go to make it 57-54 and the Wolves scored just one more point on a free throw from Lupinek with 29.4 seconds remaining.
Asidanya's two free throws with 24 seconds left accounted for the final margin and put the game on ice.
“I told the girls it would feel a lot better to walk out of this building having won the game with tears of joy rather than tears of sadness, but it wouldn't change the level of pride we have for these kids and how hard they worked,” Wolves coach John Cristiano said. “It hurts, but we lost to a great team.”
San Ramon Valley, which relies heavily on 3-point shots, got its last one from Lupinek from with 7:42 to play.
The way Salesian played down the stretch was representative of its game plan going in.
“We knew we didn't want to get into a shooting match,” Asidanya said. “We kind of stuck to what we know, which is drive and attack. They were a really good team, a really good matchup, and we're happy to get a new title for our school.”
Sacred Heart Cathedral wins Open Division title
RL Miller picked a fine time to have a career game.
Miller, better known as a football standout who will play at Fresno State in the fall, displayed his hoops aptitude Friday. He scored a career-high 24 points to lead Sacred Heart Cathedral to a 64-59 victory over Serra in the Central Coast Section Open Division championship game at Santa Clara University,
“One of the best athletes I've seen at the high school level,” SHC coach Caesar Smith said. “He's a great teammate. He plays hard. Pull out a chess board, he tries to beat you. Play video games, he tries to beat you. He's a kid I love to be around.''
Serra (17-11) came out strong at the start of the third quarter with an 8-2 burst to erase SHC's 28-25 halftime lead. That's when Miller really got it going, scoring four consecutive baskets on a fastbreak layup, an open-court dunk, a lob and after an offensive rebound. That last basket of his ignited a 19-6 run as SHC opened an 11-point lead at 55-44.
His 24 points came on 10 of 15 shooting and he also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
Three other players scored in double figures for the Fightin' Irish: Michael Manfreda scored 14, Jerry Mixon Jr. (another Division I football recruit headed to Oregon) had 12 and Fedrick Pernell scored 10.
Serra, which finished the West Catholic Athletic League season at 7-7 in a three-way tie for third place with SHC and St. Ignatius, was coming off a great shooting performance in an upset win over No. 1 seed Mitty. The shots weren't dropping for the Padres on this occasion, though, as they went 6 of 22 from 3-point range.
“We just couldn't put the ball in the basket,'' Serra coach Chuck Rapp said. “We were coming off a real strong shooting night and that always makes me nervous.”
Aidan Carleson led Serra with 18 points. Seamus Gilmartin played an outstanding game down low, finishing with 16 points and 14 rebounds.
Like Serra, Sacred Heart Cathedral (16-12) came together late in the season, winning seven of its last nine games and earning a No. 7 seed in the Open Division playoffs. Beating No. 2 Riordan in an Open Division opener, a team it had lost to twice in the regular season, was a big confidence boost.
“It not only gave us confidence that we could pretty much beat anybody, but it brought the team together to believe in each other,'' Smith said.
Now both teams will look ahead to the NorCal playoffs.