Emmi Almeida drops 21 points while leading Blue Raiders to second straight CIF title after winning D-III last season.
SACRAMENTO — Caruthers won its second straight California girls basketball title, and third overall, with its 56-37 victory over
Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) in the Division II championship on Saturday at Golden 1 Center.
After winning the 2023-24 Division III crown, the Blue Raiders bumped up into D-II and raced to a wire-to-wire victory in what was an emotional run to the finals.
Caruthers (26-6) lost assistant coach Larry Triguero, who passed away unexpectedly last month.
"He would be so happy," said Caruthers head coach Anna Almeida. "He was the best hype man in the world.
"We kind of tried to pick up LT as we're the living bond of LT and try to support the family as much as possible. We are now LT on earth while he's in heaven."
The Caruthers Blue Raiders celebrate their California Division II title on Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. It was the second straight title for Caruthers after winning the Division III crown last season. (PHOTO: David Steutel)
Almeida said he was a big part of the title run and they knew they had to come out ready to play on Saturday.
The Blue Raiders came into Saturday's final battle tested with their losses coming to 28-3 Acalanes, 20-9 Bishop O'Dowd, 25-5 McClatchy, 25-9 Clovis and 28-3 Ventura, all ranked in the top 30 in the state by the MaxPreps computer rankings.
It showed as they sprinted to a 15-8 edge after eight minutes and stretched into to a 33-10 cushion at intermission. They shot 40 percent in the opening period and bumped that to 53.3 percent in the second quarter.
"I think we held them to what two points in the second quarter, so our defense was phenomenal," Almeida said. "If you're going to win a championship, you have to play good defense, get rebounds and make shots. So we did two out of three."
In the third period, Rancho Bernardo's
Lindsay Biddle got hot, scoring 10 straight points for the Broncos on a pair of free throws and back-to-back 3-pointers. But Caruthers strung together a 5-2 run to end the quarter with the same 23-point edge it had at halftime.
"You know that was a really good team we just played," Rancho Bernardo head coach Kyle Williamson said. "But I'm proud of my girls, especially in the second half. We were down, what 26, and to get it all the way down to 14 in the fourth quarter shows a lot of character."
Emmi Almeida, the coach's daughter, led the Blue Raiders with 21 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, while
Izabel Mendez added eight.
Rancho Bernardo was paced by Biddle's 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Emmi Almeida led Caruthers to its second straight state title, scoring 21 points along with 10 rebounds in the 56-37 win over Rancho Bernardo on Saturday. (PHOTO: David Steutel)
Lindsay Biddle had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Rancho Bernardo in the 19-point loss in the Division II finals on Saturday. (PHOTO: David Steutel)
