By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
Only five Central Coast Section high school basketball teams, three girls and two boys, are still alive in the CIF State Basketball Northern California championships.
One school is one of only two schools in all of Northern California that has a chance to pull of a rare double-double - winning both the boys and girls NorCal championship.
One win is all that separates them all from a NorCal title and a date in Sacramento against their division's Southern California champion for the state title.
Getting here after a grueling 30-game season was tough enough. Advancing is going to be even harder.
For Archbishop Mitty's two Division II teams, the chance to hang a state banner in the San Jose school's gym is not so far fetched.
The Boys team does appear to have the tougher assignment though, after surviving Fairfield, 63-57, in the opening round Thursday before routing fellow CCS team Menlo-Atherton, 82-45, Saturday with both games being played in San Jose.
Mitty (28-5) entered the NorCal bracket as the No. 2-seeded team and will travel to Stockton Saturday to face No. 1-seeded Jesuit (32-1) out of the Sac-Joaquin Section.
Mitty's girls squad (29-4) was the top-seeded team coming into the bracket, and quickly dispatched Pleasant Valley (71-52) and Oak Ridge (65-55) to advance to Saturday's NorCal final in Stockton against No. 2 Pinole Valley (30-2).
North Coast Section's Branson High is the only other NorCal school that has both squads still alive going into this weekend's NorCal finals.
In the boys divisions, No. 3 Oak Grove defeated Sheldon, 64-55, and Skyline, 62-50, to advance to the Division I NorCal finals against McClymonds (27-3), the only other CCS team besides Mitty to advance this deep into the playoffs out of the section's original 10 entries.
Piedmont Hills fell to Edison in overtime in the opening round of Division I, while Riordan also was eliminated in the opening round of Division III by Sacramento. St. Ignatius fell to Bishop O'Dowd by two points in the division's second round.
In Division IV, Menlo was routed by St. Mary's-Berkeley in the opening round and Palma stormed past Amador in its opener only to fall 58-53 to St. Mary's as well in the second round.
The clock finally struck midnight for the section's Cinderella team as Bridgemont High, boasting an entire student body of 48, lost 61-56 to Hamilton in the first round of Division V, while Woodside Priory slipped past Liberty Christian only to run into perennial juggernaut Modesto Christian in a second-round defeat, 73-45, to end its season.
On the girls side, Sacred Heart Cathedral routed Enterprise, 70-32, and St. Mary's-Stockton, 79-57, to advance to the Division III NorCal title game against Sacramento in a matchup of No.1 vs. No. 2 seeded teams.
Valley Christian of San Jose secured its berth in the Division IV title game with wins over Marin Catholic, 57-54, and Bear River, 43-33, and will face St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo on Saturday for the division's NorCal title.
In Division I, neither CCS team survived the first round, with Milpitas falling to Castlemont, 73-56, in an outbracket game, while Carlmont won its outbracket game over Washington, 49-34, before falling to McClatchy, 55-39.
St. Francis-Mountain View fell in its Division II opener to Pinole Valley, 55-47, while St. Ignatius fell to Miramonte in its Division III opening game, 68-59. Santa Cruz's run through the Division IV bracket was ended by St. Patrick/St. Vincent, 80-43, in the opening round.
In Division V, Sacred Heart Prep fell to Modesto Christian, 56-42, in the first round while Pinewood routed Capital Christian, 64-44, before being edged by Rincon Valley Christian, 54-51, in the second round.
The boys NorCal finals will be played at the Stockton Arena in downtown Stockton while the girls finals will take place at nearby Delta College.
