CCS basketball roundup: Valley Christian, Christopher, Menlo boys advance
Central Coast Section basketball playoffs: Menlo girls turn back rival Sacred Heart Prep, punch ticket to Division IV final.
Boys basketball
Division I
No. 2 Los Gatos 82, No. 3 Santa Teresa 80, OT: Scotty Brennan scored 31 points, including an and-one three-point play late in overtime, to lift Los Gatos to a thrilling victory over Santa Teresa in a Central Coast Section semifinal at Fremont High in Sunnyvale. Darren Sabedra has the complete recap here.
No. 1 Menlo-Atherton 54, No. 4 Palo Alto 49: In game that lacked style points, Menlo-Atherton advanced to the final behind 13 points from John Anderson and 12 from Justin Moore. The Bears will play Los Gatos on Saturday at Santa Clara High. Nathan Canilao was in Palo Alto and has the full story here.
Division II
No. 1 Valley Christian 87, No. 4 Wilcox 59: Valley Christian soared to a 41-24 halftime advantage and never looked back as the West Catholic Athletic League school advanced to the final with a triumph over Wilcox at Fremont-Sunnyvale. Diego Martinez scored 23 points, Bryant Clark added 20 points and Tzahari Trevino contributed 16 points to lead the way. The Warriors (12-14) will play second-seeded Christopher for the Division II title on Saturday at Santa Clara High. Wilcox fell to 11-15.
No. 2 Christopher 60, No. 11 Leland 47: Leland’s Cinderella run came to an end as host Christopher got 33 points and 12 rebounds from 6-5 junior Jaxen Robinson to advance to the title game against Valley Christian. Trevor Cosgrove scored 21 points to lead Leland, which had beaten Rancho San Juan, sixth-seeded Gunn and third-seeded Woodside to reach the semifinals. Leland fell to 20-8. Christopher is 15-11.
Division IV
No. 2 Menlo School 59, No. 3 The King’s Academy 55: Menlo, playing at home, advanced to the title game as Sam Reznik (16 points, seven rebounds, five assists) and Ethan Zhao (15 points, three assists) helped pace the attack. The Knights also got 13 points from Tate Cohen and 10 points from Adam Karr. Menlo (16-7) moves on to play Carmel for the championship on Saturday at Mission College. TKA fell to 17-8.
Girls basketball
Division I
No. 2 Branham 55, No. 3 Alisal 46: The Bruins used their size to their advantage, beating Alisal to advance to the section title game on Saturday against Evergreen Valley at Mission College. Gina Shim had a game-high 17 points and Quinn Godfrey chipped in 15 points for Branham in the win. Nayeli Gil-silva led Alisal with 10 points. “Going into the season, I don’t think they had a lot of faith on where we were going to be, but I think now it’s starting to show how good of a team we can be when we show up ready to play,” Branham coach Nick Moreno said.
No. 1 Evergreen Valley 72, No. 5 Carlmont 56: Senior guard Ryka Aprameyan had another high-scoring game, this time dropping 39 points to lead Evergreen Valley past Carlmont and secure a spot in the CCS title game against Branham. Xuan-Mai Nguyen had 10 points and Aliya Azam added nine points in the win. Sydney Tao scored 17 points and Willow Ishibashi-To finished with 10 points for Carlmont.
Division II
No. 1 Monta Vista 56, No. 5 Lynbrook 42: Monta Vista’s defense proved to be too much for Lynbrook as the Vikings didn’t score more than 12 points in a quarter. Clara Fan scored a game-high 16 points for Monta Vista. Allie Rummelhoff had 15 points, Sophia Lu had 11 and Carolyn Ruan added 10 points in the win. Maggie Lam had 19 points for Lynbrook. Monta Vista will play Christopher for the title on Saturday at Santa Clara High School.
No. 3 Christopher 43, No. 2 Pioneer 33: Trailing by nine midway through the third quarter, Christopher somehow found a way to launch a big comeback to beat Pioneer. Senior Nat Javier scored 12 points and Alyssa Lopez, Kaycee Carrasco, and Shiloh Vallejos all had nine points each in the win. Madison Fujii led Pioneer with nine points and Cassie Itatani chipped in seven.
Division III
No. 2 Mills 59, No. 3 Aptos 32: Michelle Tang scored 19 points, Chloe Lee added 11 and the Vikings advanced to their fourth CCS Division III championship game in five years. Mills ran away with the game early, holding a 32-13 lead at halftime. Abby Sherwood had 13 points for Aptos. Mills will play Notre Dame-San Jose for the championship on Saturday at Santa Clara High.
Division IV
No. 1 Menlo School 43, No. 4 Sacred Heart Prep 29: Karen Xin and Ruiqi Liu each scored 17 points to lead Menlo to a victory at home over next-door neighbor SHP in a semifinal game. Bridget Selna (11 points) and Maggie Goldstein (nine points) were SHP’s leading scorers. Menlo (17-9) moves on to play second-seeded Half Moon Bay in the final on Saturday at Mission College.