http://www.cifstate.org/sports/basketball/G_brkts_2019/open

boys & girls brackets are listed across the top (click on preference)

Mater Dea is a seed in the open. Might see our recruit up here is they pull a couple of upsets.

Meanwhile, in Division I, Lakeside is there in the south so our other recruit could make it up here too. Our Oklahoma recruit's team is 21 and 1. Hard to get info on what is happening in the playoffs there.

Pinewood crushed St Marys of Stockton by 32 points Wednesday night in Los Altos Hills. Pinewood will have a rematch with Carondolet in one semi-final while Salesian will have another battle with Archbishop Mitty in the
other semi on Saturday night. Carondolet and Mitty won the initial meetings, respectively.

http://www.maxpreps.com/games/girls-basketball-winter-18-19/pinewood-vs-st-marys/2-27-2019-1l8yJquJ3EapNT4h3IPXMQ.htm#tab=box-score&schoolid=ac9c9167-10bf-4859-bc74-7eb0f69517c6

Pinewood has now beaten St Marys-Stockton three consecutive times in NorCals. Amazing stuff!

Pinewood vs Salesian in the open final

I attended the Salesian upset of Archbishop Mitty in San Jose on Saturday night. It was worst performance by a Monarch team at home that I can recall. The tone was set in the first quarter when both teams struggled to score.
After that-it seemed as if Mitty was intimidated by 6-5 Angel Jackson around the basket and only scored 41 points. Final stats are not out yet but nobody would have imagined Haley Jones as the nation's top player. The McDonald's AA shot 32% (8 for 25) from the floor. Her shots from the outside were not close and she only hit one pull-up jumper on a fast break. Mitty's other players did not pick up the slack, either. The Monarchs made one or two three point baskets that I can remember...AM also missed at least a dozen free throws with HJ missing half of hers...

http://www.maxpreps.com/games/girls-basketball-winter-18-19/archbishop-mitty-vs-salesian-college-preparatory/3-2-2019-1SsVPGxPrkq_Hnf-qohhBQ.htm#tab=box-score&schoolid=

Salesian outplayed Mitty and deserved to win. Actually #24 SF McKayla Edwards for Salesian was the only player in the game who hit regularly from the outside (3-4 treys) and made some clutch free throws down the stretch. She was the offensive MVP while Angel Jackson was the defensive MVP, IMO. AJ blocked multiple shots and affected several others simply by her physical presence near the rim.

Pinewood also went on the road to Concord to face Carondolet and won by a dozen. I have not seen a box score.
On Tuesday night, Salesian (NCS) will square off with Pinewood (CCS) for Nor Cal champion.

Thanks for the recap. I read on the Norcalpreps board that Mitty was 5-16 from the line including the front end of a number of 1 and 1's. Edwards had 23 of Salesians 44 points 5-7 on 3's.
Mitty was clearly the best team in Norcal this year, but any quality team will beat another on a given night.
I wonder where the final will be played? I think Pinewood has the home court, but there gym only seats 200? Huge embarrasment to the CIF if fans cant watch the game.

On a more important note, Mater De3i lost last night. Guess we won't see either of our recruits up here for the state finals.

Richmondbear2-I usually sit on the visiting team's side of the court because it's not so crowded. Last night I went up there and it was jam packed with Salesian Pride fans. It was so loud that I didn't know if I could tolerate it (it was like a rock concert). I talked to a couple Salesian fans directly behind me and they told me that Mitty beat
Salesian easily by 21 in Richmond because they hit their outside shots. Both sides of the gym had people leading organized cheers. The Salesian Pride fans deserve an assist for the victory because they neutralized Mitty's home court advantage. The officials did a decent job because I do not remember an incident of fans screaming at the refs for a bad call.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/03/02/mitty-ranked-no-2-in-nation-denied-shot-at-state-title/

I believe that the game is scheduled for Pinewood unless they can find a bigger arena that's available on Tuesday night. The CCS championship last weekend was at Santa Clara University. It seats 2-3000 fans at least.

wvitbear-Clovis West blew out Mater Dei by 25! I looked for a box score but nada...

Clovis West is always tough.. Probably the team to beat.

By the way, in Division II, the 16th seed is playing for the Nor Cal championship. That is the story of the post season. Union Mine or something like that.

Pinewood will play Salesian at Gunn HS Tuesday night.

Note that the NorCal Open championship is a reprise of the West Coast Jamboree Platinum Division championship game -- which was won by Pinewood 47-37.

Championship will be at Golden1 Saturday ...

Championship will be the 3rd meeting this year. Salesian defeated Pinewood is the rematch.

Finally, the NorCal Open Division championship boxscore posted:
http://www.maxpreps.com/games/girls-basketball-winter-18-19/pinewood-vs-salesian-college-preparatory/3-5-2019-r5Fc00zAAEKq3OTqSmGeWw.htm#tab=box-score&schoolid=ac9c9167-10bf-4859-bc74-7eb0f69517c6

Pinewood hit 11 treys which was the key to the victory. Salesian shutdown Mitty's outside shooting.



Wow-look at the size of Sierra Canyon's girls in the back row! MaxPreps doesn't list the player's heights but they look tall as compared to the Pinewood (6 foot or less) players. Pinewood will have to be hot and hit from long range if they're to have a chance vs SC. I don't see how the Panthers will be able to rebound or stop the Southern California champs from scoring inside.

GO BEARS!

Actually, Sierra Canyon's strength is its two junior guards, Ashley Chevalier (25) and Vanessa de Jesus (1). And they are well coached and battle-tested.

The key, as it has been so far, is Klara Astrom. She's a matchup nightmare at this level, and Pinewood will probably go as far in this game as she can take them.

NorCal girls can compete and defeat SoCal at least in the lower brackets. NC has captured D5, D4 & D3 by one-sided scores. Caruthers took Div 5, Oakland Tech blew out their Div 4 opponent, 55-27, this morning, & Oakland High easily grabbed Div 3 by 16, yesterday. DIv 2 (Menlo) and the Open Div (Pinewood) are in tough at 2pm & 4 pm today. Go CCS! WCAL is supposed to be the toughest league in the CCS. The two teams representing are from the West Bay-Foothill Athletic League which also includes Eastside College Prep, Woodside Priory, Sacred Heart Prep & Notre Dame-Belmont. The only two losses that Menlo has suffered in their conference is to Pinewood. Former Stanford star QB John Paye is their coach. His sister, Kate Paye, is Tara van Derveer's assistant at Stanford. John Paye's daughter (#11) is playing for him this season.



Menlo triumphs over Rolling Hills Prep. 70-63, while playing much like Pinewood's style and nailing 11 treys. RHP has a soph 6-4 post (Nigerian) that had 19 points. Excellent Menlo soph PG Avery Lee (#1), dead-eye soph three-point shooter Coco Layton (#13), & a quick, frosh 5-10 post Sharon Nejad (#44) will all return next year to challenge Pinewood. Pinewood graduates 3 of their top 4 scorers...

To date, the Southern California boys have taken D5, D3 & D1 relatively easily. I would be surprised if the NorCals can earn a victory in the Div II & Open Div later today. GO BEARS!

Interesting that Oakland and Oakland Tech play in the same league. I wonder if any other league in Northern cal has two state champions. They met three times in the regular season with Oakland winning all three. Two very close games.

Sierra Canyon was very impressive. When Pinewood gets beaten in the three point game, Doc Scheppler knows
it's going to be a long night. Those two junior guards, #25 Chevalier & #1 De Jesus, were the best two players on the court. Their blonde post (#33) was athletic and versatile and hit 3 or 4 treys from the right corner. SC's coach
did a great job on Hannah Jump. She only had one open look on a three and hit it. They doubled her and left the soph PG uncovered from long range. Pinewood's double-digit threes per game usually come from four players:
Hannah Jump, Klara Astrom, Katie Leung & Courtni Thompson. NorCal girls captured 4 out of 6 state titles. Campolindo boys were the only NC champs in Div II.

Southern California has a plethora of superstar talent as compared to Northern California which has generally superior coaching and team play. It's still always fun to watch the dramas unfold. GO BEARS!