The 2024-25 high school winter sports season wrapped up last weekend with the California state boys and girls basketball championships at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Two San Diego Section girls hoops teams qualified to compete for state titles: Rancho Bernardo in Division II and Mater Dei Catholic in Division III.
Both teams finished runners-up in their respective divisions with somewhat lopsided setbacks.
But the journey was obviously a memory-maker.
Southern California regional champion Rancho Bernardo ended its season with a 26-8 record following a 56-37 loss to Northern California regional champion Caruthers (26-6) on Saturday while SoCal regional champion Mater Dei Catholic (21-14) dropped a 48-38 decision to NorCal champion Marin Catholic (26-11) on Friday.
Both San Diego area teams were victimized by big scoring runs by their opponents.
Rancho Bernardo trailed 15-8 at the end of the first quarter and 33-10 at halftime after the Lady Blue Raiders went on an 18-2 run starting near the end of the opening quarter. Caruthers out-scored the Lady Broncos 18-2 in the second quarter.
Rancho Bernardo came back to out-score the Lady Blue Raiders 27-23 in the second half but the damage on the scoreboard had already been done.
Mater Dei Catholic’s demise happened in reverse. The Lady Crusaders led by one point at halftime in its marquee game against Marin Catholic before the Lady Wildcats went on a 19-4 second half run to ruin any thoughts of a victory by the San Diego squad.
Making in-roads
Mater Dei Catholic, meanwhile, won the Division IV state title in 2009 under head coach David Monroe, who recently collected his 400th career with the Lady Crusaders over 20 years.
Monroe’s career coaching record included one state championship, two regional runner-up trophies, two section championships and three CIF runner-up finishes … and now a state runner-up place-finish.
The 400-plus wins are a school record.
“It makes you feel worthy of all the hard work, all the sleepless nights, making you want to get that pay-off,” he said.
Those sleepless nights have continued this season after fifth-seeded Mater Dei Catholic upset No. 1 Southern California regional seed Pacific Palisades, 57-55, in the regional semifinals on March 8 to advance the regional final at No. 2 El Camino Real.
The Lady Crusaders remained hungry with a 51-38 win at El Camino Real (16-15) to advance to Friday’s state championship game in Sacramento.
The regional semifinal and final scores were not a misprint.
Marin Catholic, the No. 3 NorCal seed, topped No. 4 seed Justin-Siena, 65-54, in the regional final to advance.
The Lady Crusaders hadn’t stopped winning since falling, 61-46, to second-seeded Victory Christian Academy in this year’s Division I section semifinals on Feb. 26. That was four games ago as fifth-seeded MDC continued to run the table in the SoCal regionals with wins over No. 12 Bakersfield Liberty (66-40 on March 4), No. 4 Carlsbad (59-52 on March 6) and lastly No. 1 Palisades and No. 2 El Camino Real.
“The girls are putting it all together now, this is no surprise to me that they could play this way,” Monroe said. “It is just a matter of jelling and trusting each other.
“The key to beating Palisades on Saturday was being aggressive and the defense applied in the fourth quarter, especially in the last minute of the game where we had multiple stops to maintain the lead.”
Leading scorers have been sophomore Jordyn Worley, averaging 15 points per game, followed by junior Promise Martin, averaging 12 points per game. Worley had 21 points and 12 rebounds in the game against Carlsbad.
Martin is averaging a double-double — 12 points and 12 rebounds per game. She had 19 rebounds in the game against Palisades.
Things were looking good for Mater Dei Catholic at the state final. The Lady Crusaders led 21-20 at halftime and went up by four points early in the third quarter. But Marin Catholic engineered a torrid 19-4 run to take the lead and ultimately win by 10 points.
It was the first state title for the Lady Wildcats since winning the Division IV state title in 2002.
Marin Catholic senior Izzy McFadden, who is headed to compete at the next level in Denison College in Ohio, entered the state final averaging 20 pints in her last three playoff games. She poured in 21 points last Friday to end the season.
McFadden also grabbed nine rebounds, sank a trio of three-point shots and blocked two shots.
Meanwhile, Martin, who had 19 points and 17 rebounds in the SoCal championship game at El Camino Real, was absent from the floor for much of the game after getting into foul trouble early and then late in the game.
Martin logged 12.5 minutes in the 32-minute state final. Her statistics were on the minimal side: one point and three rebounds.
Worley, despite being smothered by Lady Wildcat defenders whenever she had the ball, filled in admirably with 15 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
Other players stepped up in Martin’s absence. Sophomore Jarika Chan matched Worley with 15 points, including a pair of treys.Senior Catrice Chan contributed five points.
The Lady Crusaders rebounded from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter to pull to withing five points with 3:40 remaining in regulation. However, the ending to the game was scripted by McFadden and her team with a 7-2 run down the stretch.
Mater Dei Catholic shot less than 30 percent from the floor and just 19 percent on three-point attempts.
Marin Catholic hit 17 of 46 shots (37 percent) and dropped in seven three-point shots. The lady Wildcats also logged seven more rebounds than the San Diegans.
“This year’s journey can be compared to climbing a ladder,” Monroe said. “We started at the bottom, we struggled during tournament season in December, during league season the girls were working on jelling with the players who missed our tournament season, but we were ascending, and during the playoff season everything came together for the team, players knew their roles and we made it to the top.
“These young ladies wanted it and knew they could get to that state final, they came together, supported each other and during this journey, they were determined, our practices were at a different level during the playoff season. The state championship game didn’t go in our favor. However, I told the team just getting to the game is an outstanding accomplishment and they should keep their heads up.”
In the spotlight
Caruthers made history by winning state titles in its first three trips to the state finals in three different divisions.
The Lady Broncos were hampered by the unavailability of six-foot-three junior forward Abby Lesagonicz, who didn’t make the trip because of a previous club volleyball commitment.
Junior Lindsay Biddle led RB against Caruthers with 19 points while senior Keira Tokushige dropped in 12 points. Junior Brooklyn Weddle added three points while freshman Ameya Mullapaudi and senior Reese Tokushige each contributed two points.
Biddle, who paced RB in season scoring with 19.1 points per game, keyed the Lady Broncos defensively with 11 rebounds while Keira Tokushige collected six rebounds and four assists.
The Lady Broncos trailed by as much as 26 points but a 15-4 run of their own trimmed the Lady Blue Raiders’ lead to 14 points at 49-35.
Caruthers made history as the first Central Section team, either boys or girls, to repeat as back-to-back state champions.
The Lady Blue Raiders won the Division V state title in 2019 and moved up to win the Division III state title in 2024.
Emmi Almeida logged 21 points and 10 rebounds for Caruthers.
Rancho Bernardo defeated No. 1 Monache, 35-25, in the Division II regional final on March 11 to advance to Saturday’s state championship game after qualifying for the regional tournament as the No. 8 seed in the section’s Open Division playoffs.
Rancho Bernardo was making its first trip to the state championship tournament after winning the SoCal regional in 2021 when the state finals were not contested.
Regionals notebook
Mira Mesa (28-7) advanced to the third round in the Division III boys SoCal regional bracket after finishing runner-up to Olympian (26-7) in the Division II section championship game.
Senior Melissa Ruiz ranked third in scoring on the state runner-up Lady Crusaders this season while averaging 8.2 points per game. Photo by Phillip Brents
Sophomore Jordyn Worley keyed the Lady Crusaders with 15 points and eight rebounds in the state final. Photo by Phillip Brents
California State Basketball Championships
Friday, March 14
Division V Girls: Woodland Christian (31-6) 47, Rosamond (29-8) 41
Division V Boys: International School of San Francisco (24-12) 71, Diamond Ranch (23-15) 52
Division III Boys: San Gabriel Academy (21-13) 52, The King’s Academy (27-5) 51
Division III Girls: Marin Catholic (26-11) 48, Mater Dei Catholic (21-14) 38
Division I Girls: Carondelet (30-6) 51, Sage Hill (23-12) 48
Division I Boys: Sierra Canyon (27-7) 58, Lincoln Stockton (31-5) 53
Saturday, March 15
Division IV Girls: Whitney Cerritos (28-9) 48, Half Moon Bay (23-8) 40
Division IV Boys: Priory (26-6) 83, Fresno Christian (30-7) 66
Division II Girls: Caruthers (26-6) 56, Rancho Bernardo (26-8) 37
Division II Boys: Jesuit (27-9) 66, Chatsworth (26-9) 53
Open Division Girls: Etiwanda (28-5) 75, Archbishop Mitty (27-3)
Open Division Boys: Roosevelt, Eastvale (35-2) 80. Archbishop Riordan (29-3) 60
