Girls basketball
The battle for No. 1 in girls basketball in the Bay Area — and Northern California, for that matter — just got real interesting.
On Saturday afternoon, Salesian beat St. Mary’s-Stockton. A few hours later, San Ramon Valley took care of business at home against the Bay Area News Group’s top-ranked team, Carondelet.
Throw Archbishop Mitty, Pinewood, Bishop O’Dowd and St. Ignatius – plus Folsom of the Sacramento area – into the mix and it’s pretty clear that the NorCal regionals are going to be completely up for grabs.
Let’s start with Saturday.
The most anticipated game of the weekend unfolded in Danville. Carondelet was riding high, having won seven in a row since its only previous loss, to a Texas powerhouse in the final of the West Coast Jamboree in Livermore.
The Cougars’ resume included a one-point win over St. Ignatius, a seven-point win over Bishop O’Dowd and an 11-point win over Archbishop Mitty.
The Concord powerhouse, now in its second season under former Miramonte coach Kelly Sopak, was expected to continue its winning ways Saturday night.
San Ramon Valley had other ideas.
Trailing by two in the fourth quarter, the Wolves scored nine of the final 12 points to win 64-60 and extend their winning streak to 16 games. They are 18-2 overall and 8-0 in the East Bay Athletic League, with the losses to Pinewood and Vanden.
Carondelet is 17-2, 4-1.
MORE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
- Saturday report: Lights go out on No. 1 Campolindo, but 12th win in a row follows
- Friday report: EBAL race too close to call as league tournament approaches
- Thursday report: Northgate’s late rally not enough to top No. 1 Campolindo
- Wednesday report: Mitty girls heat up late to beat St. Ignatius in WCAL showdown
- Basketball: Bay Area News Group boys, girls rankings
Boise State-bound Natalie Pasco led SRV with 24 points, 13 in the second half. Sadie Carter had eight points in the fourth quarter and finished with 15. Sierra Chambers scored 13 points, including four clutch free throws down the stretch.
Sofia Bowes had what San Ramon Valley’s team Twitter account called “the biggest 7 (points) of her life” and “incredible defense” on Stanford-bound point guard Talana Lepolo, who scored four points in the second half after having 10 in the first.
Jaime Kent led Carondelet with 18 points and Nya Epps added 12.
“Carondelet is an incredible basketball team. But our girls rose to the occasion. We battled,” SRV’s Twitter account stated.
San Ramon Valley was 0-21 against Carondelet from 2009 to 2019. The Wolves are 4-0 against the private school since then, including a 56-48 victory in Concord late last spring when both teams were undefeated. SRV went 11-0 in the spring. Carondelet finished 10-1.
The teams will probably meet again in the EBAL tournament final on Feb. 12 and possibly in the North Coast Section Open Division final two weeks after that. A fourth meeting is possible in the NorCal regionals.
But, as we noted earlier, the NorCals are going to be wide open.
Hours before SRV’s big win Saturday, Salesian traveled to Stockton and beat St. Mary’s 69-60. The Pride took command in the first quarter on its way to a 35-16 halftime advantage.
St. Mary’s cut the margin to 12 after three quarters, but Salesian held on to improve to 12-4. The Pride’s losses have come against Mitty (twice), Folsom and the Texas powerhouse that beat Carondelet, DeSoto.
Makiah Asidanya scored 24 points on Saturday to lead Salesian. The Pride also got 14 points from Nevaeh Asiasi and 13 from Sofia Fidelus.
Larger crowds on the way?
Acalanes district updates its policy
Acalanes Union High School District has limited crowd sizes at indoor sporting events during this winter’s COVID surge. The result has been tiny gatherings for some of the area’s top basketball teams, including the top-ranked Campolindo boys.
That will change this week.
In an email to the Bay Area News Group, the district superintendent, John Nickerson, said, “The schools in the District are allowing spectators at indoor gymnasium events up to 500 (split with opposing team) beginning Monday with priorities to player family members.”
Campo has one home game left on its regular-season schedule, Senior Night against Las Lomas on Feb. 9. The Cougars have six road games left, including two within their district, Feb. 4 against Acalanes and Feb. 12 against Miramonte.
Boys basketball
Amador Valley 51, No. 2 Dougherty Valley 44
It wasn’t a bad couple of days for the Amador Valley Dons. Having lost four in a row and five of its previous six before beating Monte Vista on Saturday, the Pleasanton school pulled off the boys upset of the weekend on Sunday, winning at home over Dougherty Valley in EBAL play.
Amador, which beat Monte Vista 36-35, improved to 11-7, 3-3. Dougherty Valley is 18-2, 5-2.
When the teams met in a tournament game on Dec. 30, Dougherty Valley won 51-31.
No. 3 Archbishop Mitty 56, Bellarmine 39
Mitty maintained its one-game lead over Archbishop Riordan in the West Catholic Athletic League standings, winning at home in San Jose on Saturday over Bellarmine to elevate its record to 14-4 overall and 7-1 in the league.
Derek Sangster (25 points, 13 rebounds) and Aidan Burke (12 points) led the Monarchs. Theoren Brouillette scored 17 points for Bellarmine, which dropped to 9-8, 2-6.
No. 9 Archbishop Riordan 71, No. 8 St. Ignatius 58
Playing on its home court Saturday, Riordan built a 15-point lead through three quarters on its way to a WCAL victory over St. Ignatius.
King-Njhsanni Wilhite was sensational again for Riordan, finishing with 35 points. Toledo Rivera had 15 points for SI.
Riordan is 11-6, 5-2. SI fell to 14-4, 5-3.
No. 10 Serra 67, Sacred Heart Cathedral 57
Serra won for the sixth time in WCAL play, prevailing at home over Sacred Heart Cathedral behind 21 points from Garret Keyhani and 14 from Miles Klapper.
Serra improved to 13-5, 6-3. SHC is 4-10, 2-6.
No. 17 St. Francis 69, Valley Christian 52
St. Francis sent Valley Christian to its fifth consecutive defeat as Isaiah Kerr had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Tim Netane added 16 points to lead the Lancers (11-7, 3-5). Valley is 7-11, 2-6.