From the sports archives: Hillsdale girls' basketball falls short of first Central Coast Section title

Unfortunately for the Lady Knights, winning a CCS championship will remain just that — a dream.

The Knights trailed for most of the game, fell behind by 20 and could never mount a comeback as they suffered a 47-33 loss to the Bruins.

“I always knew we could defend people,” Hillsdale coach Mike Ciardella said. “But my concern is, can we score enough to win?”

Hillsdale (20-9) proved it couldn’t accomplish the latter and didn’t do enough of the former. If anything, the Knights may have a few nightmares of Branham’s Regina Sankey, who lit up the Knights for 30 points, including 20 in the first half. Sankey scored 20 of her team’s 32 first-half points as she seemingly could not miss.

Ciardella said the Knights just defended Sankey better in the second half, but the damage had already been done.

“What are you going to do? That’s as good a kid we’ve faced all year,” Ciardella said. “I never anticipated anyone doing that to us.

“You take her out of the lineup, we drill them.”

Branham (21-7) left the door open in the second half, scoring only 15 points, including just two points in the fourth quarter. The Knights harassed them into 15 second-half turnovers, eight coming in the fourth quarter.

But Hillsdale’s inability to score consistently meant the Knights could not take advantage of the opportunity.

“I give my kids credit. They were playing good ‘D’ (in the second half),” Ciardella said.

The game, however, was lost in the first half. Hillsdale got off to a good start, with senior forward Kara Ronberg scoring six of her team’s first nine points. She gave the Knights a 2-0 lead when she took a defender off the dribble from the top of the key and drove in for a layup. Next time down, Ronberg received the ball on the block, spun into the paint and hit another layup for a 4-0 lead.

Branham responded by scoring the next six points, including back-to-back layups from Sankey. Hillsdale’s Emily Nepomuceno answered with a 3 to put the Knights up 7-6 with 4:05 left in the first quarter — the last time they would lead.

Sankey gave the Bruins the lead with her first 3 at 3:31 of the first. While Ronberg tied it at 9 with a dribble-drive, Sankey’s second 3 a little more than a minute later put Branham up 12-9.

At the end of the first, Branham led 14-9.

Sankey pushed the Bruins’ lead to 17-9 with her third straight 3-pointer; and when she hit her fourth at the 4:17 mark, the Bruins led 20-12.

“[Sankey] was feeling it,” Ciardella said. “She was in the zone.”

Hillsdale came back with six straight points from Caelynn Hwang — a layup off the dribble, a 3 and a pair of free throws — to cut Branham lead to 24-19, but the Bruins closed the half on an 8-0 run to lead 32-19 at the break.

Sankey sat for the first half of the third quarter, but point guard Ashley Parsons took over. After an Adesia Cotton bucket on a hook shot, Parsons converted a three-point play for a 35-21 lead. Parsons scored on another layup before Sankey checked back in at the five-minute mark and proceeded to score the Bruins final eight points of the quarter — knocking down 3-pointers No. 5 and 6 — as the Bruins took a 45-25 lead into the fourth period.

Sankey made the Bruins only bucket over the final eight minutes, at the 2:50 mark. Branham scored only two points over the final 10:08 of the game, but the Knights were just as cold. All of the Knights’ final eight points came from players off the bench: Tayla Franco scored four points, using a nice up-and-under move on the block to score her first points of the game. Ashley Yakushi scored a layup off the dribble and Ishana Raghuram capped Hilldale’s scoring for the tournament.

It was Raghuram’s first basket of the season. The senior played in only three games as she recovered from a knee injury.

Handicapping the Knights was the fact they were far from healthy. Raichel Tjan finally made her CCS debut after spraining an ankle during the Peninsula Athletic League tournament. But the still tender ankle, coupled with recovering from an illness, left Tjan far from healthy.

“Raichel hasn’t been healthy in a month. She could have changed the game,” Ciardella said.

To make matters worse, Hwang suffered an ankle injury at practice late in the week. She still managed to lead the Knights with nine points, but she was far from 100 percent.

A tightly-officiated game didn’t help Hillsdale’s cause either.

“Major (impact),” Ciardella said. “We’re not overly physical, but we are aggressive. It hurt their aggressiveness on defense.”

Despite the loss, Hillsdale’s season is not over. The Knights qualified for the Northern California tournament as the No. 9 seed and will be on the road.

The Knights won’t have to go far, however, as they have a first-round matchup against No. 9 Moreau Catholic-Hayward (20-9), which is about a 30-minute drive from campus. Tipoff is 7 p.m. Wednesday.

No matter what happens from here on out, the Knights will eventually bask in the fact they had the best season in Hillsdale’s girls’ basketball history with their first CCS championship game appearance.

“We’re not done yet,” Ciardella said. “I’m not disappointed. I didn’t expect this (a run to a CCS title) this year.”