Capuchino wins first-ever CCS girls’ basketball crown

With high school venues returning to full capacity, the game was played before a packed and raucous house at Capuchino. And while the Mustangs underwhelmed in the first half — taking a 20-13 deficit into the halftime locker room — Afeaki took over in the third quarter to lead Cap on a 16-0 run, scoring 10 of her game-high 21 points in the period.

“I’m just so happy,” Afeaki said. “Anything negative that happened during the game, I just forgot about it. I’m just so happy for my team. We’ve worked so hard for this. We’ve played since fifth grade together. I’m just so happy to experience it together with my team.”

Afeaki was forced to toe a perilous tightrope, however, after incurring early foul trouble. The low-scoring, hyper-aggressive game between Peninsula Athletic League South Division archrivals saw Afeaki pick up her third foul during the opening minute of the second half. Her fourth foul was charged 20 seconds into the fourth quarter.

“What I would have done in the past is probably sit her,” Capuchino head coach Steve Hoff said. “But I knew in a championship game, I just couldn’t. And so, I kind of rolled with her. And I think we kind of slowed down a little bit. There were some uncharacteristic turnovers in the first half. And it was basically: Let’s get the ball in her hands and whatever happens, I’ll live with it.”

Cap’s star senior wasn’t the only player in foul trouble. More impactful was Mills power forward Aaliyah Stuart picking up her fourth foul early in the second half. The Vikings were still leading 23-17 at that point. But Stuart, who was tasked defensively with guarding Afeaki in Mills’ swarming double-team strategy, had to come off the floor for most of the third period.

“Getting Aaliyah in foul trouble — she had to sit the last five minutes — and that hurts because she’s a rebounder; she gets our big boards,” Mills head coach Dave Matsu said. “She fights, she battled inside on offense. So, having to sit here for four-and-a-half, five minutes, it hurt our momentum. In the first half, she was working behind the zone, and we were getting good looks.”

The first-half result, quite frankly, was a massive derailment of Cap’s offense. The Mustangs shot just 3 of 17 from the field in the first half, with all three field goals belonging to Afeaki.

Mills (13-12) jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead behind two early layups from senior Janice Yung and a long perimeter 3 by sophomore Michelle Tang. Cap closed it to 9-7 by the end of the first quarter, but Mills opened the second on a 7-1 run, fueled by a shot and-1 by Yung, who went on to finish with a team-high 13 points.

Even though Mills did not mind the ball — the Vikings committed 24 turnovers in the game, 16 coming in the first half — somehow, Matsu’s bruising defensive strategy paid off, keeping the seven-point lead intact thanks to a crisp bounce pass from Yung to junior Myrka Castillo Villegas for a layup to make it 20-13 heading into the half.

“I knew that we couldn’t play much worse,” Steve Hoff said. “So, I felt good about that. But give credit to Mills. They didn’t make it easy on us.”

Then came the Afeaki show. Mills opened the second half in good shape. After the Mustangs scored a coast-to-coast bucket off a rebound by point guard Arianna Jordan, the Vikings fired right back with a 3-pointer out of the corner by Tang. But with Stuart coming off after picking up her fourth foul, it was the last points Mills would score until two minutes into the fourth quarter.

“I thought we played great defensively,” Matsu said. “We couldn’t stop [Afeaki]. She’s a big-time DI player, and I thought we did a good job. But not having Aaliyah — I couldn’t play her because she had four fouls.”

Afeaki toed the line with foul trouble as well. Of her first three, two were offensive fouls, which forced her adjust her approach.

“It made me play way more careful and just kind of be less selfish,” Afeaki said. “Because, for me, I was kind of going it for myself because I felt like I wasn’t playing as well. But then I tried to play for the team more and just try to keep my hands up and just win it for the team.”

Perhaps the most critical play was a non-call on an Afeaki layup to close Cap’s deficit to 23-19. The statuesque 6-1 forward barreled through a Mills defender on the way to the hoop, but rare silence rang out from where the whistle could have sounded. From there, Afeaki went on to tie it 23-23 with a put-back off her own miss. She followed that with a transition layup to give the Mustangs a 25-23 lead with a minute to play in the third quarter.

“She’s amazing,” Cap senior Hailey Hoff said. “We rely on her so much. She can score outside, inside. She’s amazing.”

Just as critical on the go-ahead transition score were the guts displayed by Jordan after taking an elbow to the face. The Mustangs ran the fast break with four players after Jordan hit the floor on the back half of the court in pain, clutching at her forehead and eyes with both hands. Play was stopped due to injury for several minutes after the Afeaki layup.

But not only did Jordan refuse to come off the floor, she went on to open the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer out of the corner to give Cap a 31-23 advantage.

“She goes down once a game with something,” Steve Hoff said. “But she’s 5-1, and she’s tough as any player, boys’ or girls’, that I’ve ever coached. She just keeps coming. … She’s super tough. So, it didn’t surprise me she stayed in.”

Cap all but sewed up the win by virtue of a 3-pointer from Sarah Chavez to make it 33-27 with 1:07 to play. On the following possessions, Mills was forced to foul, and soon sent Hailey Hoff to the free-throw line with 13.8 seconds remaining. The senior, and usually Cap’s best 3-point gun — who played clutch defense despite not converting a field goal in the game — walked past the Mustangs’ bench smiling at her father, Steve Hoff, as Cap could sense the historic moment.

“We’re so relieved,” Hailey Hoff said. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for four years now. It’s been our goal for every year for four years. So, it was our last goal to accomplish, and we did it.”

Mills paved quite a remarkable road to the championship stage, upsetting No. 3 Soquel in the Division III quarterfinals before traveling again to upset No. 2 Santa Cruz in the semis.

“All the praise to these girls,” Matsu said. “They’ve done everything that we’ve asked since Sept. 1. A great group of young ladies that work hard. I’m very blessed to be able to coach these ladies.”

Terry Bernal/Daily Journal

The Capuchino girls’ basketball team scored a historic victory Saturday night, defeating rival Mills 36-29 in the Central Coast Section Division III championship game. It is the first CCS title in program history for the Mustangs. Above, Cap players Arianna Jordan, left, Sarah Chavez, middle, and Ashlee Triunfo celebrate after the final buzzer on their home court in San Bruno.