Carondelet shakes off rough first half, beats Piedmont to reach NCS final ...Middle East

CONCORD – Carondelet needed less than three and a half minutes at the outset of the third quarter Wednesday night to erase a nightmarish first half that had threatened to short-circuit the team’s pursuit of a North Coast Section Open Division girls’ basketball championship.

A 13-0 run immediately after halftime enabled the Cougars to overcome an eight-point deficit on their way to a 52-39 NCS semifinal victory over visiting Piedmont.

Carondelet (24-5) advanced to the section final against San Ramon Valley. The third meeting of the season between the East Bay Athletic League rivals is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Dublin.

The Wolves, who own two victories over the Cougars, including a 70-49 decision Feb. 13 for the EBAL playoff championship, defeated Clayton Valley Charter 74-44 on Wednesday. Piedmont (20-4) is set to host Clayton Valley in Friday’s 7 p.m. NCS third-place game, with seeding for the upcoming CIF Northern California championships at stake.

The Highlanders, who had defeated Cardinal Newman 66-45 in an NCS first-round game Feb. 19, limited Carondelet to 4-for-26 shooting from the field and forced 15 Cougars turnovers in the first half. By the 4:23 mark of the third quarter, however, Carondelet had bettered its first-half point total of 14.

“In all my experience, 11 days off, that’s what it looks like,” said veteran coach Kelly Sopak, referencing the Cougars’ lengthy break between games. “The turnovers were bad decision-making, and the poor shooting was bad shot selection. We came out with a little sense of urgency in the second half.”

Freshman Maleika Brown, who had gone scoreless in the first half, drilled three 3-point field goals, the first two 36 seconds apart, to fuel the Carondelet surge.

“She passed up two or three (shot opportunities) in the first half,” Sopak said. “She’s our best 3-point shooter. We were yelling at her to shoot it. I think I might have even said ‘please’ at some point.”

Brown finished with 15 points, one shy of teammate Celeste Alvarez’s game-high total. A force inside, the 6-foot-1 Alvarez produced 10 second-half points.

In contrast to the Cougars’ depth that seemingly resulted in a substitution during every play stoppage, injury-ravaged Piedmont dressed only seven players, and used only six. Among the missing was standout sophomore Savannah Dennig, who suffered a strained Achilles against Cardinal Newman and is not expected back Friday, according to Highlanders coach Bryan Gardere.

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Piedmont led by as many as nine points on three occasions in the first half before wearing down.

“We’re pretty banged up right now, so it’s tough,” said Gardere, who gave full credit to Carondelet’s effort. “It’s going to be tough for us moving forward. We’ve been fighting the injury bug all year. It’s just been one of those deals.”

Andrea Martin led the Highlanders with 13 points, while freshman Alexa Ba had 11.

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