Crystal Springs Uplands girls’ basketball makes program history

By virtue of their being the CCS Division V runners-up, the No. 8-seed Gryphons (11-11) reached the coveted tourney, and Tuesday night in Hillsborough earned the girls’ basketball program’s historic first Nor Cal victory with a 64-37 win over No. 9 Immaculate Conception Academy-San Francisco.

“We were always aiming for it since our confidence was a little high off of our last season, since we won CCS last season,” Crystal Springs junior Riley Xu said. “And we just wanted to keep it going, keep the energy going. So, we definitely had Nor Cal in our minds.”

With no seniors on roster, the Gryphons are set up for a big future. But with the way they played Tuesday, it’s obvious the future is now.

Sophomore point guard Maile Bateman put on quite a show, totaling a game-high 19 points. The left-handed shooter’s fluid dribble around the perimeter helped settle a Crystal Springs team that started the game a little tight. Once the offense got flowing, however, it was showtime.

With her Gryphons holding a slight 9-8 lead late in the first quarter, Bateman sparked the the offense with a vicious crossover dribble and pull-up jumper from 12 feet to make it 11-8 Crystal Springs. It was the start of an 11-0 run for the Gryphons.

“That’s something I’ve kind of been working on the whole season and I just haven’t put it into play until now,” Bateman said. “I was happy about that one.”

Then reigning Daily Journal Athlete of the Week, Jemma Lacap, finished off a fine first quarter. Lacap totaled 17 points, including nine in the opening period, and with 30 seconds to go in the quarter set the transition game in motion off an ICA turnover, taking the tour for a coast-to-coast layup.

Lacap’s fast-break score seemed like the last bucket of the first quarter. But Xu had some other thoughts when — after a quick steal by Lacap on the defensive end — the rebound-intensive Xu drilled a step-back perimeter 3 at the buzzer to double up ICA 16-8 heading into the second period.

“Those last few seconds, I just wanted to see what I could do and I just happened to pull it off,” Xu said.

The first half seemed merely a warm-up for the frenetic run-and-gun second half displayed by the Gryphons. Crystal Springs outscored ICA 24-5 in the third quarter. Bateman was the mainstay, scoring 11 points in the period. But it was freshman Ella Beebe who emerged to energize the team, coming off the bench to hit two long-range jumpers, starting with a long 3-pointer — something she has rarely, if ever, done in a game.

“It was awesome,” Bateman said. “She’s like that in practice … but it was great to see in a game.”

Beebe finished with nine points, six rebounds and two blocked shots — this after she checked into the game midway through the third quarter.

From there, Crystal refused to slow down, even with a 53-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“Of course not,” Bateman said. “We never let off the intensity.”

ICA (15-7) was paced by senior Nia Smith with 13 points.

Xu finished with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Crystal Springs shot at a 49% clip, 25 of 51 from the field, and got points from all seven players on roster.

“It was fun,” Crystal Springs head coach Dave Weinstein said. “We like to push the ball … and watching video and film on this team, we thought we could do that as well. So, we were successful at it, and we wanted to keep pushing. We’re trying to get better at our execution and pushing, because we want to get as many as we can if it’s available.”

And the history wasn’t lost on the young Gryphons.

“It feels really good, since it’s the first time our team has come this far,” Xu said. “We managed to make it to the Nor Cal state playoffs for the first time ever. So, we’re feeling really good after this first win in round one. And we can’t wait to play in round two.”

In round two, the Gryphons will be on the road at No. 1 Bear River-Grass Valley (23-2), Thursday at 6 p.m.