By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - It’s not all the complicated really, St. Ignatius (San Francisco) coach Mike Mulkerrins said.
To beat Sacred Heart Cathedral, the nation’s top-ranked team, you just need to play perfect.
“And then hope they don’t play perfect,” he said.
No such luck on either end Friday night at the Leavey Center on the campus of Santa Clara University, as the top-ranked Irish, particularly the Jackson sisters Jazmine and Kamilah, were on the top of their game during a 68-44 Central Coast Section Division III championship victory over St. Ignatius.
Jazmine Jackson, the reigning Bay Area Player of the Year and Pepperdine-signee, hit all five of her 3-point attempts and scored 25 points and her Kamilah, a physical 6-foot sophomore post, added 20 points as the two-time defending state champion Irish (29-0) won the ninth straight CCS title and 52nd consecutive game overall.
“We zone ‘em and Jazmine kills us from the perimeter,” Mulkerrins said. “We switch to man-to-man and Kamilah kills us inside. What do you do?”
A prayer or Hail Mary might help.
The Irish, minus their top defensive player and overall leader Lauren Bell, out for the season with a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered two weeks ago in a West Catholic Athletic League playoff title win over St. Ignatius, raced to a 10-0 lead and were never really threatened.
Tierra Rogers, a 5-9 forward and one of the top juniors in the country, added 14 points and dynamic junior point guard Ki-Ki Moore was quiet points-wise with four, but she had a team-high eight rebounds and five assists. The Jackson sisters and Rogers had seven rebounds apiece.
It was more than enough to knock off a very good St. Ignatius squad (19-11), which lost for the fourth time to Sacred Heart and got 14 points apiece from Erin Grady and Maggie McCarthy.
The Irish made 25 of 53 shots, outrebounded St. Ignatius 36-22, committed just 12 turnovers and had 16 assists.
“It’s a seasoned group and they know what’s at stake,” Sacred Heart Cathedral coach Brian Harrigan said. “They’ve been in a lot of big games and step up when they need to.”
That especially goes for Jazmine Jackson, the smooth and polished 5-9 senior, who Harrigan said has been deferring too often to teammates of late. He challenged her this week at practice.
“I asked her where she’s been lately,” Harrigan said.
Said Jazmine: “He told me to be a star. He told me it was time to shine. He told me to start shooting so that’s what I did.”
She drilled her third three-pointer of the first quarter with 15 seconds left, giving Sacred Heart Cathedral a 17-7 lead.
After a pretty left-hand lay-up by Rogers, Caroline Barrack and Grady each made impressive driving lay-ups, to close to 19-11.
The Irish then essentially put it away as Rogers hit a putback and fastbreak lay-up and then Kamilah Jackson went to serious work with three straight interior buckets, the final one on a sweet pass from her sister, completing a 10-0 run, making it 29-11.
“They jumped on us and broke us down,” said McCarthy, a superb 5-9 senior guard, who made three 3-pointers. “We never quit and fought back like we always do. But they have so many weapons. Hopefully we’ll get one more chance at them.”
The top two teams in each division advance to next week’s CIF North Region tournament, but the only way the two teams could face each other a fifth time is if they meet in the finals.
Each will be placed in opposite brackets during the CIF seeding meeting on Sunday.
“We’d be very happy to see them again,” Mulkerrins said. “Only because that means we’d get to the finals.”
If the Irish get to the North Regional finals, it would be the ninth straight year, a remarkable feat.
It won’t be easy. The Division III NorCal field, according to Harrigan, “may be the most loaded of any division. Boys or girls.”
Indeed, most are hoping for a NorCal finals between Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s (Stockton), ranked fourth nationally by MaxPreps. Other powers include Sacramento and Miramonte (Orinda).
“The girls know it’s a three-game season to get to state at this point," Harrigan said. “They know what they need to do."
Just play perfect.
DIVISION IV
Valley Christian (San Jose) 50, Santa Cruz 34
At San Jose State, Amy Griffith had 14 points and 10 rebounds and A.J. Newton added 13 as top-seed Valley Christian (26-6) won its second straight CCS title, this time over third-seed Santa Cruz (17-13), which got nine points by Malia Santos. Combined with Sacred Heart’s title, West Catholic Athletic League teams have won 15 titles since its inception in 2002-03. Valley Christian forced 26 turnovers and led 38-16 after three quarters.
BOYS
DIVISION III
Archbishop Riordan 60, Sacred Heart Cathedral 39
At Santa Clara, Jorge Camacho, a dominating 6-7 center, and Brian Miguel, a 5-8 senior sharpshooter, had 20 points apiece as the top seed Crusaders (20-10) won a surprisingly lopsided game against their WCAL and San Francisco rival.
Under the superlative job of first-year head coach Rich Buckner, Riordan dominated in all phases, especially shooting where it hit 21 of 42 shots (50 percent) compared to an icy 14 of 49 by Sacred Heart Cathedral (18-12), which got 13 points from Jerry Brown.
With an undersized but scrappy unit, the Crusaders went on a 39-16 run in the middle quarters to win going away and take their CCS-record 13th section crown.
(Read more on this game later tonight).