ESPNHS California

This year’s CIF state championships on the girls side feature four strong favorites and one game that is almost too close to call.

Note: All of the following writeups and selections are done with the highest level of respect to both teams and all coaches. We never use point spreads and, sure, some of the scores might be a bit more lopsided than we might think. But you also never know what might happen. After all, these are teenagers.

We had one of our worst years ever in last year’s CIF finals (boys and girls combined) with just six correct and four wrong. We were 7-for-10 in 2010 and were 9-for-10 in 2009.

The following writeups were completed by Harold Abend, Paul Muyskens.

Girls Division I
(Saturday, March 24, 9:30 a.m.)

Cal-Hi Sports’ predicted score:
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 61, Berkeley 48

There’s little surprise that these two teams are meeting again for the state’s big school title. What’s different is the makeup of the two teams from last year.

Two-time defending state champion Mater Dei sent Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis off to Connecticut leaving USC-bound and ESPNHS Girls Basketball Class of 2012 No. 2 Jordan Adams and Washington State-bound Alexas Williamson to carry on.

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There is a new No. 1 team going into this weekend’s CIF state championships as Archbishop Mitty of San Jose goes to the top in Division II.

More highlights from this week’s lists include:

CIF state title favorites Mater Dei (D1), Bishop O’Dowd (D3) and La Jolla Country Day (D4) heading into their last game in the No. 1 position.

Mission Prep of San Luis Obispo holding on to D5 No. 1 ranking over Brookside Christian with what looks like a toss-up game in Sacramento.

With help from Stockton office assistant editor Paul Muyskens, here is the eighth and next-to-last listing of girls teams this season with analysis and bubble teams for each division (records listed after regional championship games played on Saturday, March 17; previous ranking in parentheses):

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It’s a scramble after No. 1 Mater Dei and No. 2 La Jolla Country Day and it could get scrambled again for next week’s final rankings after this weekend’s CIF state championships.

There should be some very competitive games this coming weekend at Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento.

More in depth analysis of the individual games will be coming from ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports later this week.

Although we got some argument from La Jolla Day Country Day coach Terri Bamford, the top spot appears to be Mater Dei’s to lose heading into its matchup with Berkeley in the D1 title game.

Windward’s fall from grace has shaken things up, but its team last week isn’t the same one that beat Mater Dei in the Nike Extravaganza, plus the fact Country Day split with Long Beach Poly now becomes an even bigger factor in Mater Dei being in the top position.

There were four newcomers this week with two of them still in action, new No. 15 Laguna Hills and new No. 18 Salesian of Richmond. New No. 16 Foothill (Santa Ana) and new No. 20 Orinda Miramonte both lost in their respective regional title games.

(Through games played on Saturday, March 17)
(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 33-3
The top spot in California is totally in the Monarchs’ hands after a 54-43 win over a Long Beach Poly team in the CIF Division I Southern Regional title game that has split with No. 2 La Jolla Country Day. A win over Berkeley on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Sacramento at Power Balance Pavilion and coach Kevin Kiernan and his girls are in California’s catbird seat for the third straight season.

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Mitty’s stunner over two-time D2 state champ St. Mary’s of Stockton highlights the day. Berkeley’s repeat in D1 highlights the night. Also taking titles are Bishop O’Dowd (D3), Salesian of Richmond (D4) and Brookside Christian (D5).

The CIF Northern Regional title games were played at Power Balance Arena in Sacramento (Divisions 1-3) and at Folsom High School (Divisions 4-5). Writeups by Harold Abend, Paul Muyskens.

Division II
Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 53, St. Mary’s (Stockton) 51

In what is a fairly huge upset, No. 3 seed Archbishop Mitty got 23 points and nine rebounds from 6-foot-1 super sophomore Kelli Hayes, and 12 points and 12 rebounds from Pepperdine-bound 6-3 senior Amanda Lovely to turn back No. 1 seed and defending state champion St. Mary’s.

The winning basket and game’s final points came on a 4-foot floater by Hayes with 25.9 seconds left on a brilliant pass from senior Courtney Lisowski.

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No. 1 teams according to ESPNHS Cal-Hi Sports heading into Saturday’s regional championships at four sites include Mater Dei (D1), St. Mary’s of Stockton (D2), Bishop O’Dowd (D3), La Jolla Country Day (D4) and Mission Prep (D5).

Highlights from Tuesday’s games included:

"Serra of Gardena posting a surprisingly easy win over Windward, which was No. 1 in the state just two weeks ago

"Long Beach Poly getting a revenge victory over Brea Olinda and setting up clash with Mater Dei

"Two-time defending Division V state champ Pinewood being eliminated by Brookside Christian

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Summit beating Santiago and Sac High getting some love accounts for the only changes in this week’s rankings. Regional semis on Tuesday, though, could produce upset or two.

The first two rounds of the CIF Southern and Northern Regional playoffs went pretty much as seeded with a few exceptions.

It’s this week that the proverbial rubber meets the road, since we’ll know by Saturday night which teams will be playing for a state titles in Sacramento at Power Balance Pavilion on March 23-24.

The Cal-Hi Sports caravan was in San Francisco last week to see Kentfield Marin Catholic pull out an exciting 45-44 overtime victory over Mercy of San Francisco in Division IV action. Marin Catholic then went on the road to San Andreas where it lost 33-31 to Calaveras of San Andreas in the quarterfinals.

(Through games played on Saturday, March 10)
(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 31-3
The Monarchs will play a doubleheader with the boys once again this week after Coach Kevin Kiernan’s girls won two games pretty handily last week, including ending the run of Huntington Beach in the quarterfinals with an 80-52 victory. Jordan Adams led the way against the Beach with a double-double 24 points and 13 rebounds (six assists, three steals) and Nirra Fields had 18 points after going for 25 in a 77-35 opening round win over Burbank. If Adams, after nursing an ankle injury the last two months, is rolling again with Fields, the Monarchs have to be heavy favorites to win a third straight Division I state title. They still have to deal with a hot Summit team on Tuesday to continue the run. The Long Beach Poly at Brea Olinda winner then looms before hotel rooms in Sacramento can be booked.

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Check out the girls stat stars of the week from March 1

Foothill’s Dayanara says sayonara to Monroe in SoCal hoop playoffs by connecting on buzzer-beating heave.

Three-pointers rain for Kelsey Minato and state-ranked team at Huntington Beach.

Softball’s best include sophomore phenom Alexis Osorio from M.L. King of Riverside and hot-hitting Mia Monopoli from Acalanes of Lafayette.

(After games of Wednesday, March 7; Contributing: Bob Barnett, Mark Tennis)

BASKETBALL

Leeann Alferness (San Marin, Novato)
The 6-foot-2 senior had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds with three blocks as the Mustangs turned back visiting Oroville 53-30 in the CIF Division III NorCal playoffs.

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As the CIF playoffs reach the regional quarterfinal stage this weekend, we choose teams that are most likely headed to state in each division. Only new No. 1 team this week is La Jolla Country Day in Division IV.

Thanks to an upset by Serra of Gardena over Windward of Los Angeles, the new No. 1 in this week’s CIF Division IV state girls basketball rankings by Cal-Hi Sports is La Jolla Country Day.

The Torreys of coach Teri Bamford have even more on their minds, of course, than a CIF state crown as there’s a chance they could be State Team of the Year for the first time.

The first step toward that will be the CIF regional playoffs over the next two weeks. La Jolla Country Day could not get past Windward in last year’s regional final and could play the Wildcats again in this year’s final. The good news about that is that just to get into that game Windward is probably going to have to play Serra again and win this time on the road.

All of the other four No. 1 teams according to CIF divisions from last week remain the same: Mater Dei of Santa Ana (D1), St. Mary’s of Stockton (D2), Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland (D3) and Mission Prep of San Luis Obispo (D5).

With help from Stockton office assistant editor Paul Muyskens, here is the sixth listing of girls teams this season with analysis and bubble teams for each division (records listed after regional playoff games played on Wednesday, March 7 but rankings do not include any results from later in the week; previous ranking in parentheses):

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Mater Dei takes over No. 1 ranking from Windward with La Jolla Country Day going up to No. 2. One team on the bubble coming on strong is Salesian of Richmond.

With Windward of Los Angeles losing 82-77 to Serra of Gardena in the CIF Southern Section Division 4AA championship game, there are changes in the pecking order of the top five in this week’s top 20, but the teams remain the same.

The Cal-Hi Sports caravan saw the CIF North Coast Section championships and was impressed with a group of talented young girls from Salesian of Richmond.

Saturday afternoon at St. Mary’s College, Salesian showed it is going to be a force reckoned with not only in the future, but in the present, after a 49-42 title-game victory over three-time defending NCS D4 champion and two-time defending NorCal champion St. Mary’s of Berkeley.

Sophomore Mariya Moore took over down the stretch for the Pride. Of her 15 points, 20 rebounds, five steals and five assists, 10 rebounds, four points, three steals and three assists came in the fourth quarter.

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Cal-Hi Sports gives a quick analysis of the girls basketball regional pairings in all five CIF divisions for the North and South.

Division I

North: The 14-team bracket has Berkeley on top as expected, but while many might think San Francisco Lowell is a surprise No. 2 choice, its record says otherwise. Included in its 28-4 record are wins over CCS champions Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco (D3) and No. 7 seed Palo Alto Gunn (D1). Both Berkeley and Lowell received first-round byes. Berkeley faces the Palo Alto-Pleasant Grove winner, while Lowell will either have a rematch with Gunn or Fremont Mission San Jose. Even with Lowell’s 45-43 win over Gunn in early December, it's high seed probably won't get the Cardinals very far even if they could win a second-round game.

South: There was very little suspense here as CIF Southern Section Division 1AA champion Mater Dei of Santa Ana secured the top spot with its win over Brea Olinda in the title game. The Monarchs open the 16-team bracket at home against CIFSS Div. 1A semifinalist Burbank. Not surprisingly, the No. 2 seed went to Brea, while the third seed went to the Long Beach Poly team Brea beat 49-43 in the semifinals. Mater Dei looks like a cinch to make it to the title game while Brea-Olinda is probably going to have to beat Poly again, something that could be very difficult.

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Here’s the second installment of posts in which we’ve made our recommendations for which girls teams should be seeded No. 1 in next week’s CIF regional playoffs. Check our page on Sunday night for reaction to all of the regional pairings.

Division II North: St. Mary’s (Stockton)
The Rams are going for their second straight CIF state title in this division (and fourth overall) and have had mostly glorified workouts so far, including a 64-29 victory over McNair of Lodi in Saturday’s Sac-Joaquin Section championship. North Coast Section champ Carondelet of Concord and CCS champ Archbishop Mitty of San Jose will present challenges to St. Mary’s in the regional playoffs, but not for the top seed.

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Here’s the first installment of two posts we’ll be doing Saturday in which we’ll make our recommendations for which girls teams should be seeded No. 1 in next week’s CIF regional playoffs.

Division I South: Mater Dei (Santa Ana)
A no-brainer here as the Monarchs are the two-time defending CIF state champs and have been FAB 50 national champs for two straight years as well. They won a loaded CIF Southern Section Div. IAA bracket that included other highly ranked teams in the state such as Brea Olinda, Long Beach Poly and Santiago of Corona. Santiago was 30-0 until running into the MD buzzsaw and lost 71-32 in the semifinals. A Monarch final against either Brea or Poly is definitely possible.

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Archived Cal-Hi Sports content from previous platform

Mater Dei defeats Brea Olinda with fourth-quarter comeback and could return to No. 1 in the state next week due to Windward’s upset loss in three overtimes earlier this week. Lynwood, Summit and Arroyo Grande also win titles.

For three quarters and most of the fourth, it looked like a third big upset of the week in the CIF Southern Section girls basketball championship was more than a possibility in the Division I-AA final played Friday night at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Brea Olinda of Brea had a 39-36 lead over two-time defending CIF Division I state champ Mater Dei of Santa Ana and took a 45-43 advantage midway through the final quarter on a pair of free throws by senior Taylor Spears.

In the last three minutes of the game, however, Mater Dei (30-3) reared up and slapped down the upset special with an 11-2 run that gave the Monarchs a 54-47 triumph.

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Archived Cal-Hi Sports content from previous platform

Sac High’s Jasmine Ware inspires her teammates and coaches with the way she plays after the obstacles she has overcome.

The expression “it takes a village to raise a child” probably couldn’t be more appropriate than in relation to the circumstances Jasmine Ware of the Sacramento High girls basketball team has faced.

When the 3.2 GPA UC Santa Barbara-bound student-athlete was a sophomore, her mother, Darlene Ware, passed away.

This year, after getting off to a solid start to begin her senior season, the 5-foot-10 guard/forward injured her knee and initially was thought to be done for the season.

Ware ended up missing 10 games on what turned out to be a bruised bone in her knee.

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Archived Cal-Hi Sports content from previous platform

According to the Cal-Hi Sports state record book, which has been published seven times, Michelle Miller of Pasadena Poly puts herself in the No. 5 position.

As a salute to the outstanding career of senior Michelle Miller of Pasadena Poly, who will play next at Princeton (yes, her grades are that good, too), we decided to spend some time compiling an updated list of the all-time career scoring leaders in California girls basketball.

It’s a great list because it contains some of the greatest players in the history of women’s basketball – led by Cheryl Miller, Diana Taurasi and Lisa Leslie -- not just California high schools.

Here is the new, updated list:

3,837 - Charde Houston, San Diego, 2001-2004
3,446 - Cheryl Miller, Riverside Poly, 1979-1982
3,374 - Danielle Orsillo, Oroville Las Plumas, 2002-2005
3,346 - Courtney Paris, Modesto Christian 2002 & Piedmont 2003-2005

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