The North Coast Section, Central Coast Section and Oakland Section basketball playoffs continued on Saturday night.
NCS Divisions II, IV and VI as well as the Oakland Section held quarterfinals games. The CCS had second-round matchups across all divisions.
The seventh-seeded San Lorenzo boys defeated No. 2 Cardinal Newman in the NCS Division II bracket. In the CCS girls, Carlmont defeated a surging Palo Alto team to advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals.
Here are the highlights:
GAMES OF THE NIGHT
NCS BOYS
St. Mary’s-Berkeley survives El Cerrito upset bid: Down five points with 14 seconds left, St. Mary’s coach Marshall Collins had one question for his team with its season on the line.
“Do you want to win this game?” Collins said as St. Mary’s season hung in the balance.
The Panthers responded in a big way.
St. Mary’s pulled off an improbable comeback, defeating No. 11 El Cerrito 70-69 in overtime to advance to the Division II semifinals where the Panthers will play San Lorenzo.
Junior Donovan Mikel sent the game to overtime as he tipped in a shot at the buzzer. In the overtime period, Kaethen Dennis knocked in two free throws to give St. Mary’s the lead with under 10 seconds left. The Panthers then got a key stop on the game’s final possession to keep its season alive.
Mikel, battling a 103-degree fever on Saturday morning, scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked two shots. His cousin, senior Christopher Baltrip, led St. Mary’s in scoring with 20 points.
“I didn’t want that to be my cousin’s last game,” Mikel said.
A back-and-forth game seemed to lean in El Cerrito’s favor in the final minutes. A jumper from El Cerrito star guard Mahal McBride hit a step back jumper at the 1:49 mark of the fourth quarter – a shot that felt like the dagger for the Gauchos.
But even as the seconds ran down, St. Mary’s slowly kept itself within striking distance. Just before Mikel’s tip in, Dennis hit a fading 3-pointer that cut the deficit to just two. A jump ball tie on the next possession gave St. Mary’s one final shot to tie the game and Mikel delivered.
In overtime, El Cerrito jumped out to an early lead but the Panthers never stopped fighting. Down three, Baltrip scored a layup to cut the Gauchos’ lead to one. With under 15 seconds remaining, El Cerrito committed a costly foul that put St. Mary’s at the line. Down one, Dennis hit two free throws to take the lead.
St. Mary’s defense stayed solid on El Cerrito’s final offensive possession and escaped with an improbable win.
“Tonight just showed how bad we wanted it,” Baltrip said. “It showed how badly we want to go to state. This is probably my best chance of winning a state title out of my four years here.”
McBride had 26 points, six assists and five rebounds for El Cerrito, which ended its season with a 23-7 record.
San Lorenzo upsets No. 2 Cardinal Newman: Is there anything Ronnie Selleaze can’t do?
Three days after posting an absurd triple double in San Lorenzo’s win over Heritage, the junior guard put the team on his back once again as he scored 30 points to lead the Grizzlies to a road win over one of the North Bay’s most storied programs.
“He’s the ultimate player,” San Lorenzo coach Toby Merchant said of Selleaze. “He does it within our system. He doesn’t force up a lot of shots. He’s a pleasure to coach and a dream to add to our program.”
San Lorenzo has taken on the underdog mentality, feeling that it should have been seeded higher than seventh in the Division II bracket. Merchant said San Lorenzo’s loss to Tennyson in the regular season was originally a win until a protest from the Hayward school was won, giving San Lorenzo its only loss in league play.
“My kids were pretty distraught after the loss affected our seeding,” Merchant said. “But we are accepting the challenge.”
San Lorenzo will travel to St. Mary’s-Berkeley on Wednesday in the bracket’s semifinals.
Albany gets past Piedmont: Albany took an early lead that it never relinquished, running away with a 58-49 win against Piedmont to advance to the Division II semifinals.
Senior point guard Deron Lyons had 25 points to lead Albany while Jasper Graf added 10.
Albany will head to the semifinals where it will play top-seeded University-San Francisco on Wednesday.
NCS GIRLS
Moreau Catholic routs Marin Catholic: Last year Marin Catholic handed Moreau a stinging loss in the NorCal Division III semifinals en route to a state championship
On Saturday, the two schools matched up once again almost a year later. And the Mariners made sure history didn’t repeat itself.
Four players scored in double figures as Moreau blew out Marin Catholic on its home floor.
Ava Bowens scored 17 points, Elisa Ortega had 16, Mahlaysia Atkins added 14 and Kaliya Kirkwood chipped in 10 to lead the Mariners to a 74-48 victory.
Moreau has played a gauntlet of a schedule thus far with matchups against San Ramon Valley, Pinole Valley, St. Francis, Archbishop Riordan, Caruthers and Valley Christian.
The Hayward school will face another tough team on Wednesday when it hosts No. 3 Justin-Siena in the Division II semifinals.
Salesian moves to semifinals: Salesian breezed past American Canyon 72-40 to advance to the Division II semifinals.
The Pride took a 12-point lead after the first quarter and didn’t look back. Salesian outscored American Canyon 25-7 in the third quarter, shutting the door on any comeback run.
Faith Thompson had 18 points and Emma Bryant added 10.
Salesian didn’t play on Wednesday after being given a bye in the first round. The Pride will play Lick-Wilmerding on Wednesday.
OAKLAND SECTION BOYS
Oakland breezes into section semis: Oakland hasn’t played in 10 days, but there was not signs of rust on the Wildcats.
Oakland demolished Skyline 77-24 to advance to the Oakland Section semifinals where it will face Fremont-Oakland.
Junior Johnathan Crawford led the way with 13 points, followed by 12 from Camden Jacques and 10 from Da’sean Armstrong.
CCS BOYS
Evergreen Valley grits out win: After a slow start in the first half, EV used a 19-point third-quarter burst to defeat Alisal at home in the first round of the Division I playoffs.
“Our guys finally woke up in the third quarter and we started executing on some of our sets, and our defense tightened up a little bit,” EV coach Arjun Ashokkumar said.
Donovan Truong led the way for EV with 21 points while Ananth Kothapalli added 12.
The Cougars will get Palo Alto in the next round – a rematch of last year’s Division I quarterfinals.
Woodside stuns Monta Vista: On the second night of a back-to-back, Woodside wasn’t tired.
Instead, the Wildcats came out prepared to play spoiler in their matchup with No. 6 Monta Vista.
Down six at halftime, the eleventh-seeded Wildcats used a second-half surge to upset Monta Vista on the road.
“Our approach was to stay as loose as we can,” Woodside coach Ramon Meacham said. “CCS time is just a time for you to prove to yourself as a team and to other people how good you are. We just wanted to compete with Monta Vista as much as possible.”
Senior Luke Grech had a game-high 22 points to lead Woodside. Marco Antonino added 15 points.
Woodside will travel to St. Francis on Tuesday for its quarterfinal matchup. Meacham said his team will focus on playing a clean game.
“St Francis has a lot of players that can do a lot of different things,” he said. “So I think for us, it’s going to be about, can we be as disciplined as possible and can we stay as positive as possible throughout the entire game.”
CCS GIRLS
Harker wins first game in over a month: Sophomore Jillian Chen had an efficient 15-point night as Harker breezed past Gunderson 48-28.
Junior Finley Ho added 10 points and freshman Danya Arun added 7 for Harker, which won its first game since Jan. 8.
Harker (9-14) will go to Sacred Heart Prep on Tuesday for its semifinal matchup.
STARS OF THE NIGHT
– Christopher Baltrip scored a team-high 20 points to lead St. Mary’s-Berkeley past El Cerrito.
– San Lorenzo junior Ronnie Selleaze turned in another outstanding game, scoring 30 points in the Grizzlies’ upset win over Cardinal Newman.
– Deron Lyons had 25 points in Albany’s win over Piedmont
–Ava Bowens had 17 points to lead Moreau past Marin Catholic.
– Evergreen Valley’s Donovan Truong scored 21 points in Evergreen Valley’s crucial win over Alisal
– Jillian Chen scored 15 points as Harker notched its first win in over a month
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– San Mateo girls defeated Leland 60-50 to set up a quarterfinal matchup with crosstown rival San Mateo on Tuesday.
– Mission San Jose boys squeaked by Bethel 55-54 to advance to the Division IV semifinals where the Warriors will play top-seeded San Marin. The Fremont school has not made the NorCal playoffs in the MaxPreps era.
– Alhambra boys defeated Diablo Athletic League rival Benicia in overtime to advance to the Division IV semifinals. The Bulldogs won the Division V title last season.
– Las Lomas girls defeated crosstown rival Northgate 47-31. The Knights avenged an 11-point loss to the Broncos that occurred just two weeks ago.
WHAT’S NEXT
The CCS Open Division for both boys and girls will resume pool play on Monday. NCS Divisions I, III and V will begin play on Tuesday. The Oakland Section semifinals will take place on Wednesday.
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