High school girls basketball: Nike Tournament of Champions set for heavyweight semifinal showdowns

By Aaron Williams Dec 19, 2025, 8:00pm

No. 1 Archbishop Mitty and No. 12 Bishop McNamara to meet one one side of the bracket while No. 3 Bullis and Long Island Lutheran square off on the other.

MESA, Ariz. — Second-day action at the Nike Tournament of Champions on Friday didn't produce upsets like Thursday, but quarterfinal results set up a dynamite set of semifinal matchups Saturday.

No. 1 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.), No. 3 Bullis (Potomac, Md.), No. 12 Bishop McNamara (Forestville, Md.) and National Top 10 No. 1 Long Island Lutheran (Brookville, N.Y.) all advanced Friday in the Vincent Cannizzaro Division bracket. 

Mitty and Bishop McNamara meet at 6 p.m. MST while Long Island Lutheran and Bullis battle at 7:30 p.m. The championship is slated for 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22.
Ze'ni Patterson of No. 1 Archbishop Mitty scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the first half of Friday's 76-44 win over No. 7 Democracy Prep at the Nike Tournament of Champions. (PHOTO: Darin Sicurello)
Ze'ni Patterson of No. 1 Archbishop Mitty scored 17 of her game-high 22 points in the first half of Friday's 76-44 win over No. 7 Democracy Prep at the Nike Tournament of Champions. (PHOTO: Darin Sicurello)
Archbishop Mitty has won the tournament each of the past two years.

The top-ranked Monarchs closed out their MaxPreps Top 25 showdown against No. 7 Democracy Prep Agassi Campus (Las Vegas, Nev.) with a 19-0 blitz in the fourth quarter to pull away for 76-44 win. Up 57-44 after three, Mitty got six points from Maliya Hunter, five from Emma Cook, four from Tee McCarthy and a last-second bucket from Rihanna Henderson.



Mitty led 21-11 after the first quarter and extended it to 41-27 at half as Ze'ni Patterson scored 17 of her 22 points before intermission. 

Sophomore Avery Freeman led the Democracy Prep with 11. 

The path to the next round for Bullis wasn't without some obstacles as Millennium (Goodyear, Ariz.) staged a fourth-quarter rally in search of a second upset in as many days.

Bullis led 18-11 after one and 32-16 at the break before taking a 47-24 edge into the final quarter. But Millennium, which beat No. 19 Monsignor Scanlan (Bronx, N.Y.) 83-78 in triple-overtime Thursday, didn't roll over. Junior Dashia Richardson went on a personal 10-0 run to get the Tigers to within 16 at 52-36. But the Bulldogs never let their lead dwindle to single digits. 

Adora Nwude led Bullis with 19, Taylor-Anne Williams added 15 and Ivanna Manyacka chipped in 13.

Long Island Lutheran ran out to a 16-7 lead after one period over Bartlett (Tenn.) and then lengthened that edge in each quarter toward a 71-30 running-clock victory.



The Crusaders came at the Panthers in waves as sophomore Taylor Brown led the way with 19 points while Vanderbilt commit Olivia Jones and Kentucky pledge Emily McDonald each added 17.

Belmont commit Samiya Jones led the Panthers with 16 points, including a seven-point personal run over the tail end of the second quarter and the start of the new half.

The final winner's bracket game saw a hot-shooting San Ramon Valley (Danville, Calif.) team that hit 13 3-pointers Thursday run into the smothering baseline-to-baseline defense of Bishop McNamara, which held on for a 51-40 win. 

Bishop McNamara held a 25-19 lead at the break and stretched that to 38-25 after three. Qandace Samuels had a game-high 20 points, including a pair of triples. The Wolves clawed back in the early part of the third period, tying the game at 25 on an Ella Gunderson bucket off an assist from San Jose State commit Alyssa Rudd.

But Bishop McNamara answered with a 13-point run to close the period as McCoy scored seven in that stretch. San Ramon Valley would cut the lead to nine deep in the fourth quarter on a pair of 3-pointers by sophomore Kaitlyn Mills.

Friday's results and high scorers

MZ — Promise Njoku, 15; Diamond Waters, 10. HF — Aunyai Deere, 21.





No. 3 Bullis (Potomac, Md.) 57


LUHI — Taylor Brown, 19; Olivia Jones, 17; Emily McDonald, 17. BAR — Samiya Jones, 16.




FP — Adyra Rajan, 18; Ryann Huang, 14; Lesina Afu, 12. MD — Noelle Mulvanny, 17; Stella Hoss, 9; Amiah Lewis, 9.

Saturday's games
Vincent Cannizzaro DIvision
Millennium vs. Bartlett, 9 a.m., Court 2
Democracy Prep vs. San Ramon Valley, 10:30 a.m., Court 2
Homewood-Flossmoor vs. Newcastle, noon, Court 2
Lone Peak vs. Mater Dei, 1:30 p.m., Court 2
Mt. Zion Prep Academy vs. St. Mary's, 6 p.m. Court 2
Scanlan vs. Fairmont Prep, 7:30 p.m. Court 2
Archbishop Mitty vs. Bishop McNamara, 6 p.m. Court 1
Long Island Lutheran vs. Bullis, 7:30 p.m., Court 1