St. Mary’s (Stockton) 74, Kennedy (Sacramento) 63
High scorers: Chelsea Gray (SM) 22, Melody Khlok (K) 19.
Key stat: Kennedy 34 turnovers
Key run: St. Mary’s 20-2 starting midway through third quarter
Unsung heroes: St. Mary’s sophomore Ali Gibson and junior Annissa Garcia combined for 26 points.
Look for: A video report from Justin Groom and photo gallery on this game later today.
By Mitch StephensMaxPreps.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The unveiling of the nation’s top-ranked girls basketball team at Kennedy High in Sacramento left St. Mary’s (Stockton) coach Tom Gonsalves a little queasy on Monday night.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous before a game,” he said. “Not even before games at Arco Arena (where his Rams have played for six state championships, winning four).”
The Rams ultimately acted as an Alka-Seltzer for their coach in a 74-63 Foundation Game victory over a feisty and determined Kennedy squad thanks to a late third-quarter surge and a combined 39 points from two of the country’s top underclassmen Chelsea Gray and Afure Jemerigbe, both juniors.
It helped offset a spirited effort from the Cougars, who led as late as midway through the third quarter and got 19 points from Melody Khlok and 11 from Leslie Leong.
“Our effort was a strong B, our execution about a C, our press a B-minus and overall I’d give us a B,” Gonsalves said. “Frankly, I’m just glad we got through it.”
It’s not easy being on top – especially above more than 18,000 teams throughout the land.
But the Rams, without a senior and only one 6-footer on the roster, she being the high-flying Jemerigbe, who stands exactly 6-0, were the preseason No. 1 team by MaxPreps, ESPN and USA Today.
That was based on their 32-1 record last year, with the lone loss 46-45 in the CIF NorCal finals to eventual state and national champion Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco), a game St. Mary's controlled much of the way.
The Rams lost just one senior off that team and with star power, quickness, shooters and Gonsalves’ well-established frantic full-court-high-speed-force-the-action-take-as-many-shots-as-humanely-possible approach, they leap-frogged everyone including Sacred Heart Cathedral to the top spot.
Not that that means anything.
“It really doesn’t mean much,” said Gray, who absolutely controlled play from the opening minute and finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds and six assists. “It’s just a ranking. We just try to stay humble and not talk about it and just play ball.”
Said Gonsalves: “I don’t know if it (the top ranking) weighs on them, but it sure has me.”
And it unquestionably fired up Kennedy on Monday.
The Cougars, No. 23 in MaxPreps’ California preseason computer rankings, are no strangers to top competition and under coach Brandon Yung have been among the top Division I Northern California teams this decade. They won the NorCal title in 2002 and last year lost in the NorCal finals to Berkeley.
Yung’s team opened the season with a 52-46 loss to the state’s No. 12 team Sacramento and have also scheduled such Northern California powers as Berkeley, defending state Div. II champion Archbishop Mitty (San Jose), Oakland Tech and Maria Carrillo (Santa Rosa), all before the New Year.
“We want to see right away where we stand and what we need to work on,” Yung said. “I think tonight we’ll take away many positives. We just had a couple mental lapses and against St. Mary’s it just takes a snap of the fingers and the game can get away.”
The Rams snapped the door shut following a three-point play by Leong that gave Kennedy its last lead, 46-44 with 3:51 left in the third quarter.
St. Mary’s rattled off a 16-2 run the rest of the quarter and added two athletic lay-ups by Jemerigbe to start the fourth, making it a 20-2 run overall.
The spurt lasted just 4:21 but that’s all the Rams needed to take utter control.
“That’s kind of what we do,” Gonsalves said. “Our pressure is going to get to opponents at some point and we can be explosive.”
The run started with an absolutely beautiful drive to the basket by Gray, who kissed the ball high off the board into the hoop while being fouled. She completed the three-point play and St. Mary’s would never trail again.
Annissa Garcia (12 points) had a lay-up off a feed from Gray and a putback, Ali Gibson (14 points) added a putback and Jemerigbe a 3-pointer in the run. Gray also contributed a pretty reverse fastbreak lay-up and a turnaround jumper off a post.
“I thought their big guns kind of imposed their will when the game got tough,” Yung said.
Indeed, Gray and Jemerigbe combined to score 12 of their team’s 14 in the final quarter and 12 of the 24 in the third.
“We knew Kennedy was going to be tough especially in its own gym,” Gray said. “We just had to stay composed and keep pressing and our shots would eventually fall.”
Though Kennedy, led by poised and at times spectacular point guard Kirsten Shimizu (six points, eight assists), seemed to handle the pressure well, the Rams still forced a whopping 34 turnovers.
But the Cougars, who also have just one 6-footer and are even shorter than the Rams, also forced 23 turnovers and hung around longer than most probably figured.
Khlok, a skilled and scrappy 5-9 senior post, said her team wasn’t intimidated.
“We knew they were No. 1 in the country and we were juiced,” she said. “We feel like we can beat anyone on any given night and tonight we left it all on the court. Hey, we were down two at halftime and lost by 11 to the nation’s best. That’s pretty good.”
St. Mary’s 74, Kennedy (Sacramento) 63
St. Mary’s 19 17 24 14 - 74
Kennedy 16 18 14 15 - 63
ST. MARY’S (1-0): Gray 7 6-7 22, Gibson 5 2-4 14, Moreno 3 0-0 6, Gonsalves 0 0-2 0, Solomon 1 0-0 3, Garcia 6 0-0 12, Jemerigbe 7 2-3 17. Totals 29 10-16 74.
KENNEDY (0-2): Kinsey 3 2-2 8, Leong 4 1-1 11, Khlok 8 3-4 19, Shimizu 1 4-6 6, Matsuoka 3 1-2 9, Butler 4 0-0 8, Grant 0 2-2 2. Totals 23 13-17 63.
3-point goals: Gray 2, Gibson 2, Solomon, Jemerigbe, Leong 2, Matsuoka 2. Fouled out – Garcia.
10 TAKES FROM ST. MARY’S-KENNEDY
As tough as Gonsalves’ and the Rams’ reputation is, Kennedy didn't back down one bit. We’re talking a tiny team here folks. The starting backcourt of Shimizu and Matsuoka is 4-11 and 5-3, respectively, and seven of the Cougars 12 players are shorter than 5-6.
It looked like St. Mary’s was gassed more than Kennedy, which doesn’t happen often.
Against such a short squad, Gray resembled a female Magic Johnson on the court, sometimes posting up, sometimes shooting 3-pointers but always in charge and always making teammates better. She’s a very special player.
Gibson, a 5-7 guard, looks especially skilled. She’s one of only two sophomores on the team. The rest are all juniors for the Rams.
Surely they’ve heard it before, but it’s hard to imagine that the Rams can survive a big bruising squad with a few ball-handlers and quickness.
They’ll definitely need to get their 3-point game going – always a staple of the Rams – but on Monday they were just 6 of 25. To beat big, athletic teams, they’ll need to make at least 10 3-pointers.
As good as Khlok is around the basket, she’s even better as an interviewee. Highly quotable, open and insightful.
Shimizu did a fantastic job breaking pressure and always found the right player in 3-on-2 situations. Not only was she wearing a knee brace, from an injury years ago, Yung said she also endured a severe shoulder injury. It didn’t show. Very fun to watch.
Speaking of fun, Kennedy's cheering section, made up primarily of boys (not always present at girls games), was rocking and spirited. I’m not sure the significance of its can’t-miss alien mascot in an uncomfortably skin-tight green suit. Not sure HE was as uncomfortable as those in attendance. His halftime dance-off with the more conventional Cougar mascot was “Twilight Zone” meets “Grease” meets “
AI.” Truly a first in 25 years of watching high school halftime routines.
Jemerigbe, recovering from a severely sprained ankle over the summer, took a half to look like her dominating self. Gonsalves set up a backdoor ally-oop play for her to start the second half that you see designed in boys’ games for a dunk.
Have a take on the game, the teams, the green Alien, this article or girls basketball? E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
