California State Basketball Championships Saturday

SACRAMENTO, Calif — Game stories and box scores from Saturday's CIF State Championships.

DIVISION II
Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) 54,
College Park (Pleasant Hill) 47
Led by sophomore Jeremiah Headley's 19 points and 13 rebounds, Redondo Union defeated College Park to win the CIF boys Division II state championship Saturday at Sleep Train Arena.

Ian Fox added 11 points for Redondo Union, and Mikey Eggleton led College Park with 14 in the loss.

Redondo Union made the most of a significant size advantage, outrebounding College Park 48 to 31.

"We outrebounded them by 17 so that definitely was important," said Redondo Union coach Reggie Morris. "That's something that we always try to do. Games are won in the paint, particularly championship games."

Said College Park coach Craig Battle: "We had some good looks but they were running right at us. That was a good defensive team. Bottom line was we didn't make the shots."

Fox opened the scoring with a steal at halfcourt and a breakaway layup. College Park then took up a 9-3 lead after a layup by Seb Flores with 1:44 left in the first quarter, and took a 9-5 lead into the second quarter.

After College Park opened up a 12-5 lead early in the second, Redondo Union cut the deficit to 12-10 after a 3-pointer by Fox and later tied the game with 3:30 left on a layup by Headley.

After Redondo Union opened up a 20-16 lead, College Park's Tommy Acton brought them within two with a jump shot, but Headley followed with a layup with 6 seconds left to take a 22-18 lead into halftime.

Redondo Union opened up a 25-21 lead to start the third, but Eggleton completed a three-point play to bring the Falcons within a point, 25-24, with 5:30 left in the quarter.

Redondo Union responded with a 9-4 run, however, to extend the lead to 34-29 at the end of the third.

The Sea Hawks began the third quarter with a 7-0 run after a layup by Fox, a banked-in jumper by Derek Biale and a 3-pointer from the left wing by Darrien Touchstone, to take a 41-29 lead.

College Park launched a late comeback, with Joe DeMers hitting a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 45-38 with 1:30 remaining. The Falcons continued to fight, cutting the lead to 52-47 with 5 seconds left, but the comeback ultimately fell short.

A spectacular soaring dunk by Headley over a College Park defender punctuated the win. It was later featured on ESPN's Top 10 Plays, earning the No. 1 spot.

"Coach (Reggie Morris Jr.) has been wanting me to do that all year, so I wanted to make a statement and I wanted to do it on the biggest stage," Headley told reporters. "I just wanted to use my leaping ability and it worked out for the best."

Though their season ended in defeat, the Falcons finished with the most wins in school history and they won a historic Northern California championship. Playing at Sleep Train twice was a remarkable experience too said Eggleton. Last week, College Park scored a 93-90 overtime win over Dublin in the highest scoring Northern Region game in history.

"It was a little surreal,'' Eggleton said. "It's something you dream about as a kid. We were very lucky to get this opportunity."

Redondo Union 54, College Park 47
REDONDO UNION (28-8)
Darrien Touchstone 1-5 1-4 4, Sebastian Linder 1-3 0-1 2, Chris Henderson 0-5 0-0 0, Derek Biale 2-14 6-6 10, Ian Fox 4-11 2-4 11, Leland Green 1-7 2-2 4, Jeremiah Headley 8-11 3-5 19, Cameron High 0-3 4-4 4

COLLEGE PARK (26-6)
Seb Flores 1-6 2-2 4, Steven Daily 0-0 0-0 0, A.J. Newell 2-5 1-2 7, Mikey Eggleton 4-11 5-5 14, Joe DeMers 4-10 2-2 13, Jeffrey Mitchell 1-3 0-0 2, Peter Schoemann 2-8 0-0 5, Trevor Larnach 0-0 0-0 0, Tommy Acton 1-2 0-0 2, Jack Corey 0-2 0-0 0

Redondo Union   5  17  12  20 — 54
College Park      9   9    11  18 — 47

3-point shooting: Redondo Union 2-13 (Touchstone, Fox), College Park 7-25 (DeMers 3, Newell 2, Eggleton, Schoemann). Rebounds: Redondo Union 48 (Headley 13), College Park 31 (DeMers 14). Assists: Redondo Union 3, College Park 2. Turnovers: RU 15, CP 20. 

DIVISION IV
Pacific Hills (Los Angeles) 58,
Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa) 52

Newman coach Tom Bonfigli devised a perfect game plan and the Cardinals executed it to near perfection.

Until the final 4 minutes. That's when the Bruins went into "bite down" mode.

Two free throws by Corey Hammell gave Newman (32-4) a 46-45 lead before Pacific Hills ended on a 13-6 run to the disappointment of a loud and enthusiastic contingent of about 2,000 fans who made the haul from Santa Rosa.

The Cardinals, who got 14 points each from Hammell and Tim McCullough, had only eight turnovers but four of them came down the stretch which proved to their undoing.

It didn't help that the Southern California champions (29-4) had a potent trio of 6-3 Marcus Jackson (23), 6-5 guard Namon Wright (17) and 6-foot guard Jahmel Taylor (14), who combined for all but four of Pacific Hills' points.

"Except for the last few minutes we executed everything perfectly," Bonfigli said. "And they were good enough to take advantage. ... We did everything we wanted to do but win the game."

An extended 2-2-1 trap led to the turnovers and the final run started with a 3-pointer by Jackson, who finished it off with a putback and two free throws.

Taylor, a Washington signee, added a fast break jumper and layup in the run and Wright, headed for Rice, made a beautiful slicing drive and layup.

"We never back down," Taylor said. "The last four minutes we pushed. We just had to bite down and that's what we did."

"Bite down" is a term the coaches use, Taylor said. "When we bite down, we feel we can beat anyone."

Newman had plenty of bite and was in the game from the opening tap and even had the lead much of the way.

"I'm proud of my guys," Bonfigli said. "We were not intimidated. We expected to win We thought we could win, and we didn't. And we have nothing but great compliments placed on the team that beat us. But my guys played like champions."

Pacific Hills 58, Cardinal Newman 52
PACIFIC HILLS (29-4)
Jonathon Mills 2-4 0-0 4, Adam Plax 0-1 0-0 0, Jahmel Taylor 4-11 5-5 14, Namon Wright 8-12 0-2 17, Marcus Jackson 8-18 4-4 23, James Casanova 0-1 0-0 0, Andre Ferguson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-48 9-11 58.

CARDINAL NEWMAN (32-4)
Tim McCullough 5-8 1-2 14, Kenny Love 2-9 5-6 10, Corey Hammell 4-8 5-6 14, Sean Martin 3-7 0-0 6, Julian Torres 1-1 0-0 2, Kyle King 3-8 0-0 6. Totals 18-41 11-14 52.

Pacific Hills            15  18   8  17  — 58
Cardinal Newman  12  15  14  11  — 52

3-point shooting: Pacific Hills 5-21 (Jackson 3, Taylor, Wright), Newman 5-12 (McCullough 3, Love, Hammell). Rebounds: Pacific Hills 28 (Wright 11), Newman 23 (Hammell 8). Assists: PH 4, Newman 2. Turnovers: PH 8, CN 8.

GIRLS

DIVISION II
Lynwood 39, St. Francis (Mountain View) 26
In a battle between two renowned programs and coaches, Lynwood defeated St. Francis for the title.

It was an offensive struggle for both teams, as the combined 65 points set a CIF state championship game record for fewest combined points at any level. The teams also set records for fewest points by a winning team and a losing team at the D-II level.

Jazmine Johnson led Lynwood with 11 points, while Amber Blockmon finished with eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Lauren Johnson scored 10 points and pulled down nine rebounds for St. Francis in the loss.

Though Lynwood struggled offensively, the Knights forced 23 turnovers in the game while committing just nine.

"We always tell our team, defensively we can always win," said Lynwood coach Ellis Barfield, who won his fourth state title. "Offensively we have our good nights and our bad nights, but with defense we can always win."

Both teams struggled offensively to begin the game, with St. Francis taking a 10-9 lead midway through the second quarter, but Lynwood responded with an 11-0 run to close out the half, going into halftime with a 20-10 lead.

After Lynwood opened the second half with another basket, St. Francis responded with five straight points, capped by a three-point play by Jennifer Lucian, who had returned to the game after a severely bloody nose, to close the gap to 22-15.

Lynwood continued to apply the pressure and extended the lead to 28-19 by the end of the third quarter. A basket by Johnson with just more than 6 minutes remaining pushed the Knights’ lead to 31-19, their largest of the game to that point.

A 3-pointer by St. Francis’ Shelbi Aimonetti with just more than 4 minutes left cut the deficit to single digits, 33-24, but Lynwood responded with a layup by Blockmon with 2:20 left put the game out of reach, 37-24.

"These girls have great heart, they have great character," said Barfield. "We lost six seniors last year and we really came together as a unit and competed."

DIVISION IV
Serra (Gardena) 62, Salesian (Richmond) 60

Serra celebrates its first state girls championship after a 62-60 win over Salesian Saturday at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento.

Photo by David Steutel

Two threats are always better than one and never was that better demonstrated than in this title game, as Siera Thompson had 26 points and Deandrea Toler added 20 to offset 35 points and 10 rebounds from Mariya Moore to give Serra (30-5) its first state championship.

Siera Thompson, Serra

Photo by David Steutel

Moore scored the fifth-most points in state title-game history, tying Lisa Leslie, and she she broke a state title-game record (all divisions) for free throws attempted (20) and makes (17).

But she would trade them all in for the title that Serra earned by building a 15-point third-quarter lead with ball-hawking defense (it forced 26 turnovers) and staying tough to hold off the hard-charging Pride (29-7), who closed within one twice at 50-49 and 52-51.

But the battle-tested Cavaliers held strong and also converted on the line, especially the Michigan-bound Thompson, who made 11 of 12 free throws. Of Serra's final 10 points, eight were from the line, the only bucket a driving layup from Toler, a 5-6 senior headed for Oregon, who also had a game-high eight rebounds.

Deandrea Toler, Serra

Photo by David Steutel

"We've been here and done that," Serra coach McKinsey Hadley said of his team's ability to maintain the lead. "We always keep our composure."

That was difficult with Moore taking over the game. The 5-11 wing, considered one of the top juniors in the nation, scored 13 points in the third quarter after Toler scored eight straight points to give Serra a 36-21 lead. But Moore led runs of 10-0 and 16-4 to close to 44-41 by the end of the third. 

She also had one of her game-high six assists to close the quarter on a Taylor Crowder hoop. Moore also had a game-high 10 rebounds along with teammate Zoe Correal, a 6-4 junior.

"We just had to leave it on the floor," Moore said. "We had to play like it was our last game."

Mariya Moore, Salesian

Photo by David Steutel

Said Salesian coach Stephen Pezzola: "We've played from behind all year. We never give up. I'm really proud of our effort and that we played like The Pride."

But there was just a tad more urgency for Serra, led by the Thompson and Toler, both seniors. They did not want to finish their careers with losses.

"It's a senior-laden team," Hadley said. "They've been in a lot of tight games and situations. They've put in the work and today they reaped the benefits."

And Hadley reaped more than a championship, he said.

"I've been crying since I left the court," he said. "I'm so happy for our seniors."

Serra state champions Siera Thompson (l) and Deandrea Toler.

Photo by Mitch Stephens

Serra 62, Salesian 60

SERRA (30-5)
Kayla Bibb 1-2 2-4 4, Siera Thompson 6-19 11-12 26, Deandrea Toler 8-17 4-11 20, Caila Hailey 0-9 3-6 3, Nautica Morrow 1-2 0-0 2, Brijaye Brackett 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 18-55 23-39 62.

SALESIAN (29-7)
Kian McNair 0-7 4-5 4, Mariya Moore 8-27 17-20 35, Alana Horton 3-4 2-2 8, Zoe Correal 4-9 0-0 8, Isabell Ampon 0-1 0-0 0, Jahna Maramba 0-0 1-2 1, Taylor Crowder 1-5 0-0 2, Deja Stallworth 1-4 0-2 2, Minyon Moore 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-58 24-31 60.

Serra      12 16  16  18  — 62
Salesian 14   5  22  19  — 60

3-point shooting: Serra 3-10 (Thompson 3), Salesian 2-12 (Moore 2). Rebounds: Serra 40 (Hailey 8), Salesian 50 (Moore 10, Correal 10). Assists: Serra 3, Salesian 8 (Moore 5). Turnovers: Serra 21, Salesian 26.