Campolindo of Moraga’s girls show their pride after triumph in CIF NorCal Division III championship against St. Mary’s of Berkeley. Photo: @CampolindoHS/Twitter.com.
In girls basketball regional finals played on Friday-Saturday but not at Long Beach State or Santa Clara, winners were Mater Dei of Santa Ana and Vanden in D2, Rosary and Campolindo in D3, Los Osos and West Campus in D4 and Eastside College Prep and Rolling Hills Prep in D5. Mater Dei actually won its game on Friday.
RELATED: Girls NorCal Open & D1 Finals | Girls SoCal Open & D1 Finals | Boys NorCal Open & D1 Finals | Boys SoCal Open & D1 Finals | Other Boys Regional Division Finals
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Division II South:
Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 50, Orangewood Academy (Garden Grove) 39
In a matchup played Friday night at Vanguard University, the Monarchs (24-8) earned a bid for their fifth CIF state title by knocking off the top-seeded Spartans. We have had Mater Dei highest-ranked among SoCal teams in this division and the girls proved which was correct. Cydni Lewis and Sarah Rahon had 15 and 11 points respectfully. This has actually been a sub-par season by all standards from previous Mater Dei teams led by head coach Kevin Kiernan, but the team has bounced back strongly from losing two close games that began the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs. Those two losses also essentially dropped Mater Dei down to D2 for the regional playoffs. Orangewood finished 22-11 and was No. 3 in this week’s divisional state rankings. The Monarchs were No. 1.
Division II North:
Vanden (Fairfield) 66, Miramonte (Orinda) 65
Despite trailing at the end of the first, second and third quarters, the Vikings led when it mattered and will be headed to the state finals next week. During the third quarter, the Vikings trailed by 10 but went on a 14-1 run to take a 46-43 lead to set the stage for a dramatic fourth quarter that saw Cassie Alden’s offensive rebound and basket with 26.9 seconds left turn out to be the game-winner. Clair Steele had a chance in the final seconds for Miramonte but her shot didn’t not fall for the Matadors. Vanden won a NorCal championship for the first time in program history.
Center Rebekah Obinma of Fullerton Rosary already has been named the CIFSS John Wooden award-winner at its player of the year for schools that were in the Division III section playoffs. Photo: @hsslsports/Twitter.com.
Division III South:
Rosary (Fullerton) 63, Serra (San Diego) 43
After winning two overtime games in the CIFSS playoffs, the Royals have been surging. They certainly didn’t need overtime to defeat the Conquistadors and will now be making the school’s first trip to the CIF state finals. Royal (29-5 and No. 3 in this week’s divisional state ranks) got 20 points each from the inside-outside combo of center Rebekah Obinma and freshman guard Kate Goostrey. Serra had battled through the bracket as a No. 6 seed, beat No. 2 Camarillo on the road in the semifinals and ended at 23-11.
Division III North:
Campolindo (Moraga) 78, St. Mary’s (Berkeley) 56
Haley Van Dyke scored a NorCal girls championship record 46 points to go along with a Division III regional girls record of 20 rebounds as the Cougars defeated the Panthers for the second time this season. Scoring 26 of her points in the second half, it was a 24-13 fourth quarter that saw the Cougars pull away for the comfortable win. Van Dyke scored 13 points in both the third and fourth quarter. Campolindo will take on Rosary Academy of Fullerton next Friday afternoon in the state finals. The Cougars have four CIF state titles in their history, but those were all in Division IV (1990, 1995-1997) and none of the current players were born yet.
Division IV South:
Los Osos (Rancho Cucamonga) 52, Village Christian (Sun Valley) 43
The top-seeded and No. 2 D4 state-ranked Grizzlies (27-3) advanced to their first CIF state final with a strong second half. Brianne Ha led the way with 20 points, including 17 in the second half and with her having four fouls for much of the time. Village Christian (31-4) was hoping to get back to the state finals after losing in the D5 final last season. Leslie Aguilar of Village Christian led all scorers with 22 points. For the competitive equity-based divisional breakdown debate, it should be noted that Los Osos has approximately 3,000 students while Village Christian has 476.
Division IV North:
West Campus (Sacramento) 70, St. Joseph Notre Dame (Alameda) 30
One of the more surprising scores this weekend was the Warriors dominating this battle between the top two seeds to earn their short trip next week to the state finals. Since a narrow 62-58 loss at St. Mary’s of Stockton (which did come when the Rams had two starters missing), the Warriors will go into their matchup against Los Osos on an 11-game winning streak and winners of 25 of their last 26 games. Only one of their postseason games so far in Division IV have been close — a 47-41 win in last Tuesday’s NorCal semifinals against Arcata.
Division V South:
Rolling Hills Prep (San Pedro) 68, Bellarmine-Jefferson (Burbank) 56
This was a case of the lower state-ranked and lower seeded team beating the higher seeded and ranked team. Rolling Hills (32-3) was No. 5 state-ranked and No. 5 seed. Bell-Jeff was No. 2 state-ranked and No. 3 seed. It will be the first-ever trip for RHP to the CIF state finals, which also is true of the school’s boys (who won their D5 regional final Saturday vs. Notre Dame of Riverside. Cosette Balmy kept the Guards in it by scoring 21 points. They were trying to get back to the D5 state final for the first time after they won it in 2009. Freshman Alyssa Maxey, a recent Cal-Hi Sports SoCal Player of the Week, had 20 points for Rolling Hills while Macy Pakele chipped in with 16.
Division V North:
Eastside College Prep (East Palo Alto) 66, Woodside Priory (Portola Valley) 58
Head coach Donovan Blythe’s squad will be playing at 10 a.m. on Friday in Sacramento looking to defend its Division V state title that was won last season in a 57-50 defea of Sun Valley Village Christian. With their lead cut down to two points with just over one minute to go, the Panthers scored five straight and made their free throws to earn their way to the state championship game for the third year in a row. Eastside trailed by five after one quarter and led by just one at halftime before going on a run in the second half to lead 54-44 with just over five minutes remaining. Two seasons ago, the Panthers lost 40-36 to La Jolla Country Day in the Division V state championship game at Cal.
(Editor Mark Tennis did some of these writeups as well)
Paul Muyskens is the Stockton office assistan editor for Cal-Hi Sports. Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle:
