Juju Watkins, Trailblazers hope to avenge 12-point loss in Southern Section finals; Mitty, Carondelet face off for NorCal championship and possible national ranking.
Four of the best girls basketball programs in the country will battle it out Tuesday for a shot to play in the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships.
These are the top two of 13 regional finals, all which start at 6 p.m. except the Sierra Canyon-Etiwanda contest as well as the NorCal Division 1 game between Salesian (Richmond) and St. Ignatius (San Francisco). The winners of 12 of the games will advance to the CIF State Championships Friday and Saturday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Etiwanda, after its first regional or state championship, already defeated Sierra Canyon, 69-57, in the Southern Section Open final behind 22 points from
Sa'lah Hemingway and 15 from
Kennedy Smith.
Kennedy Smith, Etiwanda
File photo by Mark Jones
The Eagles fought back from a 14-point, third-quarter deficit and a 24-point effort from the Trailblazers'
Juju Watkins to win their first section crown.
Sierra Canyon has won four state titles without a loss, including a 69-51 win over Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) in the 2019 Open championship. The last two state championships were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Mitty is tied for second with most state finals appearances with 12 and hope to make it 13 against a Carondelet team that already handed it a loss this season. The Cougars, led by Stanford-bound point guard
Talana Lepolo, defeated Mitty 61-50 on Jan. 29 at the West Coast Jamboree. Since then, Mitty has won 20 straight behind one of the state's top sophomores
Morgan Chelii and coach Sue Phillips, who has 751 career wins and six state titles.
Carondelet, which won a state title behind future WNBA star Jayne Appel, is coached by Kelly Sopak, who formerly coach Sabrina Ionescu at Miramonte (Orinda).
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