SACRAMENTO — Jordin Blackmon staked
Bishop Montgomery (Torrance) to an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes of the CIF Division I final against
Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) and the Knights raced to a 52-40 victory for the school's seventh state title.
"I just have three words — 'We did that,' " second-year Bishop Montgomery coach Rheina Ale said in the post-game press conference.
Blackmon opened the game with a jumper from the elbow, added a runner and two more buckets
inside the paint before the clock hit 5:00 in the opening quarter. The
Dragons'
Jayla Stokes hit a 3-pointer before a
Cyriah Coleman bucket and
NBA-range 3-pointer from Blackmon opened up a 13-3 Knights lead.
"We started with intensity. We are usually a second half team but we came out with fire and that set the tone for the game," Ale said.
Bishop Montgomery coach Rheina Ale celebrates the Kinghts' CIF Division I title on Friday at Golden 1 Center. Bishop Montgomery beat Bishop O'Dowd 52-40 on the strength of a strong first quarter. (Photo: David Steutel)
The other tone of the game was O'Dowd's shooting woes, especially in the paint."You have to put the ball in the basket," Dragons' coach Malik McCord said. "We knew we had a hole to dig out of but the ball wasn't falling."
Bishop O'Dowd shot 20 percent — 6 of 30 — from the field before intermission.
The Knights led 24-10 after the first quarter and used an 11-4 run to take the 35-14 edge into intermission.
But O'Dowd wasn't going to go quietly, using a 21-7 run to cut the edge to nine points at one point in the fourth quarter as Bishop Montgomery shot 1 of 11 in the third period.
Bishop O'Dowd's Myella Chapman goes in for a bucket in the CIF Division I girls final on Saturday. O'Dowd lost 52-40 to Bishop Montgomery. (Photo: David Steutel)
hit a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter for O'Dowd that cut the Dragons' lead to 42-33 less than two minutes into the period forcing Ale to call a timeout.
"I told them at half that they can't play to win, we need to play our
game," she said. "Our passion and energy is what got us here. ... We need to focus and finish our story."
The Knights scored on consecutive possessions out of the timeout on buckets from
Tiara Jones and
Sophia Dignadice to staunch the Dragons' threat.
"We got to our goal," McCord said of reaching a state final. "But we didn't finish the ultimate goal."
Blackmon led Bishop Montgomery with 15 points while Coleman added 14 and Jones chipped in nine. The Dragons were led by Stokes' 11 points while
Madison Gordon added eight, Chapman had seven and
Devin Cosgriff scored 6.
Jordin Blackmon scored 11 first-quarter points for Bishop Montgomery as the Knights won their seventh girls state title, beating Bishop O'Dowd 52-40 on Saturday. (Photo: David Steutel)
