Girls BB CIF State Previews & Picks

Etiwanda looking to pick up third straight CIF Open Division state title and it could be two straight for Caruthers (but this time for D2 and not D3). It also may be surprising that Sabrina Ionescu’s high school coach hasn’t yet won a CIF state title, but that may change on Friday night. We’re looking to do better than 8-4 for last year (boys & girls combined) and 9-3 from 2023. We do this with respect to all 12 teams who’ve made it to a CIF state championship and with a historical touch. Editor Mark Tennis has been credentialed at every CIF state championship weekend since the first one in 1980 in Oakland. Highlights from some of the regional finals also included in these previews.

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Note: Our lead girls basketball analyst, Harold Abend, did the breakdowns for Open Division and Division. Editor and publisher Mark Tennis did the rest with help from Harold in D2.

FOR MOST RECENT GIRLS STATE TOP 30 RANKINGS (DONE BEFORE REGION FINALS), CLICK HERE.

(All games played at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento)
(All state rankings references to State Top 30, which were done before any of this week’s games)

Open Division (Girls)
State No. 2 Etiwanda (SoCal) 27-5 vs. State No. 3 Archbishop Mitty of San Jose 27-3 (NorCal), Saturday, 6 pm

Like the Mitty team it’s facing in the CIF Open Division state championship title game that got pushed to the limit by Clovis West, Etiwanda got all it could handle in the Southern Regional Open championship. The difference is head coach Stan Delus and his Eagles were facing an Ontario Christian team that was not only No. 1 in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings, but a consensus No. 1 in all the national rankings.

Despite that and the fact Etiwanda had lost twice this season to Ontario Christian, by eight early on at the Harvard-Westlake tournament, and 65-63 in the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship in a game the Eagles led late but lost on free-throws in the final seconds of the game, Etiwanda led all the way against Ontario Christian in the SoCal Open championship. It was 23-17 after one quarter, 37-28 at the half, and 52-47 after three quarters before the Eagles played the Knights even at 15-15 in the final period to post a 67-62 victory.

Like the Mitty team they face on Saturday, the Eagles have a little adversity, but it didn’t seem to stop them. When Etiwanda lost the first time to Ontario Christian, and also in the couple of weeks afterward when the Eagles took three more losses, all to national level teams during a long travel spell, senior and Cal-Hi Sports Freshman, Sophomore and Junior State Player of the Year Aliyahna “Puff” Morris, was nursing a wrist injury and was taped up when we saw her in the first game against Ontario Christian. Senior Grace Knox has been dealing with some nagging injuries, including her back, that have caused her to miss some games, but she has still been a major contributor, plus others have stepped up.

Morris, who is making a push for the grand slam if she can add the Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year honors to her three previous class awards, had 32 points and four assists in a 67-57 win over No. 5 ranked Mater Dei of Santa Ana. Against Ontario Christian, Morris had a team-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-for-8 on three-pointers, plus she played exceptional defense, which is hers and Etiwanda’s trademark. She took on State Freshman of the Year and Ms. Basketball candidate Kaleena Smith, and although Smith finished with a team-high 22 points, Morris locked her up in the fourth quarter.

“She was a monster for us tonight,” said Delus about Morris after the Ontario Christian win. “She defended Kaleena (Smith) straight up in the fourth quarter, hit key shots and timely threes.”

Junior Arynn Finley has been playing well for Etiwanda and had 16 points with two three-pointers against Ontario Christian. Sophomore Aliyah Phillips has been a solid contributor and had 10 points against Mater Dei. Sophomore Chasity Rice hit three three-pointers and had 11 points against Etiwanda. The fifth starter, senior Shaena Brew, is solid on both ends of the court.

For Mitty, the big difference between last season’s team and this year’s version of the Monarchs squad that will be facing Etiwanda for a third straight time in the CIF Open Division state championship, is that Mitty came into the matchup last year at 30-0 and not only No. 1 in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings but in all the national rankings as well. What’s the same is head coach Sue Phillips brings a team to Sacramento that like last season is facing adversity, and because of that we had them as slight underdogs with a 59-57 OT prediction, and its underdogs that they are again for the 2025 Open title game.

Last season, it was current Connecticut freshman Morgan Cheli, who had been instrumental in the Monarchs Nike TOC championship when they dethroned Long Island Lutheran and supplanted that team as the nations’ No. 1 team, that was not at full strength. The player that did all the heavy lifting while Cheli missed some games and led the way for Mitty against Etiwanda with a double-double 14 points and 10 rebounds with six assists and three steals, was McKenna Woliczko, who followed up her Cal-Hi Sports State Freshman of the Year honors with the State Sophomore of the Year award despite the loss in the championship.

At least Cheli played last year in the 60-48 loss to Etiwanda. Woliczko will not be due to a season-ending knee injury in January and that means others are going to have to step big time to defeat an Etiwanda team that just knocked off previous everything No. 1 Ontario Christian to set up another re-match with Mitty. With Woliczko cheering her teammates on from the bench in street clothes, Mitty needed major contributions from the current starting five, and they got just that to pull out a 64-60 win in the Northern Regional Open Division championship over a Clovis West (Fresno) team that came into the game with a 33-0 record. Freshman post Maliya Hunter, who was recently named the West Catholic Athletic Player of the Year, led four Monarchs in double-figure scoring with 15 points (one three-pointer) plus six rebounds. Junior Emma Cook played with high energy on both ends of the court and added 13 points and seven steals. Junior standout Devin Cosgriff had 11 points and four rebounds. Her three-pointer with 1:20 remaining gave Mitty a 62-56 lead and pretty much sealed the deal. Sophomore Ze’Ni Patterson, who nailed a three-pointer with 2:14 left to give Mitty a 59-56 lead the team never relinquished in a game that had 19 lead changes and 16 ties, also had 11 points with the one three-pointer plus four rebounds. Sophomore Tiera McCarthy only tallied six points, but she played exceptional defense and had nine steals, including one she took coast-to-coast to tie the game at 56-56. McCarthy also had five assists and four rebounds. Junior Abi James gave Mitty a lift off the bench with six points.

After the 74-66 loss to Ontario Christian in November, Delus was a bit somber, and before the game he had indicated his Eagles were dinged up and it was going to take a huge effort to win. On thing he did say was he would “rather lose now and win in March.” Etiwanda did lose to Ontario Christian in March in the Southern Section Open championship, but just like two years ago when it lost to Sierra Canyon and JuJu Watkins in that same CIFSS Open title game, they avenged the loss in the CIF SoCal Open championship. With a bit of a bump along the way, Delus was prophetic.

Since an 88-79 loss to New York No. 1 and national power Long Island Lutheran back east in mid-December, Etiwanda is 23-1 with the lone loss in the CIFSS Open title game. Including the 69-67 loss to Etiwanda in the 2023 CIF Open Division state championship, and despite a 12-point in last year’s CIF Open state championship, Archbishop Mitty has played as well against Etiwanda as any of the teams in the CIF Southern Section Open Division, or for that matter, just about anyone else.

What will it take to dethrone the two-time defending Open Division state champions? Mitty will need to play a lot better than it did against Clovis West, it will have to make more than the three three-pointers, all in the second half, than it made against Clovis West, and at the free-throw line, do a better job rebounding and they’ll need to match the physicality of Etiwanda. A key could be Hunter and her ability to score and defend in the paint. Devin Cosgriff, who makes her third straight state championship appearance after playing for 2024 D1 runner-up Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland), has started to come on and show why many consider her one of the top juniors in the state. Mitty has won 17 CIF Northern Regional titles, including six in the Open Division, and it has won six state championships in 15 appearances, but the Monarchs are 0-4 in the Open Division and have lost three straight.

For Etiwanda, it’s a chance to mark themselves as one of the greatest teams in state history. Eight teams have won three straight CIF state titles and five have won four-straight, but none have been in the Open Division and only Long Beach Poly did it in Division I with four consecutive championships. Etiwanda is now tied with Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) with two straight Open state championships.

Prediction: Etiwanda 67, Archbishop Mitty 58

Division I Girls
State No. 15 Sage Hill of Newport Beach 23-11 (SoCal) vs. State No. 13 Carondelet of Concord 29-6 (NorCal), Friday, 8 p.m.

Carondelet is playing its best basketball of the season right now and is getting contributions from a lot of players. Like the Sage Hill team they will face on Friday night, the Cougars are a young team with only three seniors on their 12-player roster and none are starters. The top two players are junior wing Layla Dixon and flashy junior point guard Sophia Ross. Dixon had 11 points in the CIF Northern Regional Division I championship 57-51 victory over St. Mary’s of Stockton, and 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a 64-48 semifinal win over Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa. Ross had 12 points (four three-pointers) against Cardinal Newman. Freshman forward Niylah Christopher came up huge against St. Mary’s with a team-high 12 points, plus she was effective on the glass, particularly the defensive end. Sophomore 6-foot-1 power forward Celeste Alvarez added eight points and did a good job against St. Mary’s 6-foot-4 center Evelini Smith, just like she did in the semifinals where she had 12 points, six rebounds and blocked four shots of Cardinal Newman 6-foot-2 freshman phenom Saundra Jordan.

The up-and-down Lightning, like Carondelet, only has three seniors on its 11-player roster and none are starters. The top player is Amalia Holquin. She didn’t play her best when we saw her in a 48-41 loss to San Diego Francis Parker in November at the Harvard-Westlake tournament, and she’s sputtered and been under the weather in a couple of questionable Sage Hill losses, but down the stretch Holquin has been turning it on and seems to come up big in the biggest games. Against Windward (Los Angeles) in the CIF Southern Regional Division I championship 52-41 victory, Holquin had a game-high 24 points with four three-pointers, plus eight rebounds and two steals. She came through with a five-point spurt that took the Lightning from a one-possession game to an eight-point lead with less then two minutes remaining. Her three-pointer from the top of the key with under a minute to play sealed the deal. Freshman Addison Uphoff, who recovered from an off season foot fracture, has been playing well all season and impressed us in the two times we saw Sage Hill this season, added 12 points. Freshman Eve Fowler had nine points and sophomore Kamdyn Klamberg, who has had some solid performances for Sage Hill this season, had six points.

This will not only be a battle between two very young teams, but also a match-up of teams that were not the top seeds in the regional playoffs. Carondelet was the No. 3 seed in the NorCals and Sage Hill was the No. 2 seed in the Southern Regionals. With only two teams taken from the CIF North Coast Section Open Division for the Open NorCals, third-place winner Carondelet dropped down to Division I. After going 0-3 in the CIF Southern Section Open Division and with five teams taken for the Open SoCals, Sage Hill also dropped down to D1 for state.

Both teams may be young but Carondelet has some strong junior leadership in Dixon and Ross, but Sage Hill has Holquin, and she was in Sacramento as a spectator in 2022 when her Mamba teammates on the Lightning, who also came into the game with double-digit numbers of losses, won the Division II state championship with a 51-47 win over Fresno San Joaquin Memorial. Carondelet has won one state championship in three appearances and that was in Division II in 2010 when the Cougars defeated Fullerton Troy. Sopak makes his second coaching appearance in a CIF state championship. In 2016, with current WNBA superstar Sabrina Ionescu going for the only triple-double in CIF girls state championship history, his Miramonte (Orinda) team fell to Chaminade of West Hills, 80-71. If Holquin stays hot, and she can go ballistic with three-pointers at times, Sage Hill would seem to have an advantage.

Prediction: Sage Hill 59, Carondelet 55

Division II Girls
Rancho Bernardo of San Diego 26-7 (SoCal) vs.
Caruthers 25-6 (NorCal), Sat. 2 p.m.

Both of these teams competed in the highest division of their CIF section playoffs and have made it to the state finals.

For Caruthers, it’s something the girls did just last year as they went from being in the Central Section D1 playoffs to winning the CIF D3 state title. This time, the Blue Raiders are trying to do it again but in D2 instead of D3. They also are looking for their third CIF state title since 2019 when they won in D5. The team’s last loss was in the Central Section D1 playoffs, 68-64, to Clovis (which eventually pushed state No. 6 Clovis West to OT before losing in the final).

Rancho Bernardo was actually the last team added to the CIF San Diego Section Open Division and lost in its first game to Francis Parker. The Broncos then had to wait two weeks to find out where they were going for the regionals (all SD Open teams get to advance), but have taken advantage of the opportunity of being in D2. Rancho Bernardo topped Monache of Porterville, a team that Caruthers opened the season by beating 79-29, to win the regional title, 35-25. Guess it would have been bad for competitive equity if Monache had won the regional final.

Head coach Anna Almeida of Caruthers was the 2024 State Coach of the Year and will be without assistant coach and big-time Caruthers community sports supporter Larry Trigueiro, who passed away suddenly a few weeks ago from a heart attack. We know a lot of folks in the section will be thinking about Larry no matter what happens on Saturday. The team doesn’t have everyone back from last season, but guard Emmi Almeida, daughter of the head coach, is back and the team has one of the top 1-2 inside duos in all of Northern California with 6-foot-2 sophomore Jaylee Moore and 6-foot-2 junior Celeste Mack.

The Broncos have had a defensive monster of their own in their playoff drive with 6-foot-3 junior Abby Lesagonicz. She had eight points, nine rebounds and eight blocks in the regional final. They also have a high-scoring guard with junior Lindsay Biddle. She has averaged 19.1 points per game and was a SoCal Player of the Week. She had 31-point outings against both Torrey Pines of San Diego and Murrieta Valley of Murrieta.

Prediction: Caruthers 63, Rancho Bernardo 48

Division III Girls
Mater Dei Catholic of Chula Vista 21-13 (SoCal) vs. Marin Catholic of Kentfield 25-11 (NorCal), Friday, 4 pm

There may not be more of a coaching difference in experience than the two who will face off in this matchup. Mater Dei Catholic head coach David Monroe has more than 20 years at his school and has won more than 400 games in his career. The Crusaders also have a CIF state title from 2009, two regional runner-up finishes and two CIF San Diego Section titles under Monroe’s guidance. Marin Catholic has a new head coach this year in Kayden Korst, who just six years ago in 2019 was playing for San Domenico of San Anselmo and was a senior in college just two years ago at Cal State San Marcos. That’s not to mean that Marin Catholic won’t be ready.

Marin Catholic has a CIF state title in its history as well with a win in the D4 state final in 2002. Previous head coach Ashley Saia also left a strong foundation for Korst, led by returning Marin County Athletic League Player of the Year Izzy McFadden. She had 22 points in both the regional quarterfinals and regional semifinals. Sienna Frazier had 14 points in the team’s 65-54 win over Justin-Siena of Napa in the NorCal regional final. Justin-Siena had a win vs Marin Catholic earlier in the season and also was the team that the Wildcats defeated to win the CIF North Coast Section D2 title. Justin-Siena also was the team that took out top seed Immanuel of Reedley.

The Crusaders were only a No. 5 seed despite being a D1 semifinalist in the San Diego Section. They ousted top seed Palisades of Pacific Palisades in the regional semifinals, 57-55 in overtime, and then went on a 20-0 run in the second quarter and into the third quarter to beat El Camino Real of Woodland Hills, 51-38, in the SoCal championship. The team has an inside player who may give Marin Catholic trouble. That’s a promise, too, since that player is junior Promise Martin, who had knocked down 14.6 points and grabbed 11.3 rebounds per game. Martin also had 19 points and 16 rebounds vs ERC. Sophomore Jadyn Worley doesn’t score that much, but had 14 rebounds and four blocks in the regional final.

The computer rankings can be silly at this time of the year as very good teams in top divisions drop when they don’t play with seasons over and are passed just because others are still going. Still, Marin Catholic’s 34 ranking compared to Mater Dei Catholic at 140 is kind of hard to dismiss when picking a winner.

Prediction: Marin Catholic 59, Mater Dei Catholic 52

Division IV Girls
Whitney of Cerritos 27-9 (SoCal) vs Half Moon Bay 23-7 (NorCal), Saturday 12 noon

Both teams in this game are coming in as No. 2 seeds from south and north regionals and both are looking to make history as the first teams in their school histories to win a CIF state title in girls hoops.

Whitney avenged a loss to Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Montebello in the CIFSS D3A semifinals with a 47-42 triumph over Cantwell-Sacred Heart in the regional championship. The Cardinals also were the top seed in the division. The Wildcats, who have the same name and same nickname as the Whitney Wildcats of Rocklin up north, have an effective outside-inside combo of sophomore Alyssa So and senior Haylie Wang. So had 22 points and made four 3-pointers in the regional final. Wang had 16 points and 10 rebounds and had a career high of 45 points in a game earlier this season.

Half Moon Bay didn’t get to avenge its loss to Harker Academy of San Jose in the CIF Central Coast Section D4 championship because Harker was placed in D3 by the CIF. The Cougars also didn’t knock off the top seed in NorCal bracket, but they made plays down the stretch to beat Lowell of San Francisco in the regional final, 49-47, (and Lowell was the team that upset No. 1 seed Liberty Ranch of Galt earlier).

Delaney Dorwin made a lay-up with 26.2 seconds left to give HMB a 49-47 lead vs Lowell and that basket stood up when the Cardinal missed a possible game-winning shot at the buzzer. Dorwin had 13 points in the game. Leading scorer Zoey Lemoge had 14 points in that contest. For this game, it would seem Lemoge (17.1 ppg, 10.0 rebounds) vs Haylie Wang and Dorwin (15.0 ppg, 8.7 rebs, 4.2 assists) vs Alyssa So may provide the differences.

Prediction: Half Moon Bay 43, Whitney 41

Division V Girls
Rosamond 29-7 (SoCal) vs.
Woodland Christian 30-6 (NorCal), Friday, 10 a.m.

It’s been a spectacular few years for the Woodland Christian athletic department, including a 15-0 football season with a CIF state title in the 2023-24 school year. When the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D5 playoffs were done, the boys basketball team looked like a favorite for D5 after they won the section title. The Cardinals’ boys, though, were upset in their first regional game. The girls, who had lost in their section final to Bret Harte of Altaville, are the ones instead going for their first state title.

With Bret Harte elevated to D4, Woodland Christian reached the state final with a 54-45 regional final victory over Encinal of Alameda. The team was seeded No. 2 in the north with top seed Summit Shasta of Daly City bounced in its second game. The Cardinals recorded a 47-40 win over Head-Royce of Oakland in the semifinals.

Rosamond, which also is going for its first state title, has been as hot as the high desert gets in the summer during these last two months. The reason is obvious and that’s the return of junior standout Ariel Cain in early January from an injury. Since Cain has been back, Rosamond has only lost twice in 21 games. One of those losses, to Desert of Edwards, 45-37, was later avenged in a big way, 62-35. Cain had 29 points when the Roadrunners raced past Hillcrest of Riverside, 68-41, to win the regional title. The team does have balanced scoring in most games, though, with Abigail Cardoza leading the way as 12.3 ppg.

The Cardinals feature senior Teagan Hayes at 14.4 ppg, then senior Siena Sorbello at 11.9 ppg. Senior Keziah Maldonado-Lemus also averages 7.0 assists per game.

Prediction: Rosamond 55, Woodland Christian 53

Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend

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: @CalHiSports