Half Moon Bay Cougars come up short

For a Cougars team that thought its season was over after a Central Coast Section Division IV semifinal loss to Harker-San Jose, every day of the CIF postseason was a gift. After four straight wins en route to capturing a Northern California regional title, however — hosting four straight home games as the No. 2 seed — the program’s first trip to the state finals suddenly felt like a winnable mission.

“It’s a true testament to how hard we worked this year, what this team is capable of,” Half Moon Bay head coach Megan Smith said, “and I’m just really excited for the future. Obviously tough to see our seniors go out on this note, but they’ve brought us here and we know that’s just going to kind of propel them into the rest of their lives. And the rest of us, we’ll be back and we’ll try to recreate some of this.”

Compared to the tempered lights of HMB’s home gymnasium, the lights of Golden 1 Center proved bright. Too bright. The Cougars shot just 30.6% from the field, with senior point guard Delaney Dorwin struggling through a 3-for-17 shooting performance.

Playing in the final game of her prodigious four-year varsity career, Dorwin settled for 10 points and an uncharacteristically abysmal four rebounds.

“It’s definitely bigger,” Dorwin said of the stage. “Bigger space, a lot more people, just the nerves. Also, it’s a lot brighter gym than we normally play in.”

Junior center Zoey Lemoge recorded a double-double, totaling 18 points and 18 rebounds, both game-highs, while providing a spark on three and-1 chances, converting two of them. Her final one, with 3:41 to play in regulation, cut the deficit to 43-40, the closest HMB got in the second half.

Lemoge’s made free throw was the last time the Cougars scored in the game. Whitney finished on a 5-0 run, with three free throws from sophomore Alyssa So, and a layup from senior big Haylie Wang, who finished with a team-high 17 points.

“She has a good shot,” Half Moon Bay senior Paige Haberman said of Wang, who for a physical 5-10 post player showed she could stretch the floor on offense from long range as well. “So I knew I had to get out on her, but then also watch the drive.”

Wang and senior forward Sarai Carter totaled nine rebounds apiece, while senior guard Rachel Moyher snuck in for six boards. While HMB technically out-rebounded Whitney 34-32, including 14-11 on the offensive glass, the breakdown is misleading as many of the Cougars’ rebounds came off their own misses, several of them missing on the second-chance shots as well.

Whitney head coach Myron Jacobs said the performance on second-chance points was the best he’s seen in his three years at the helm.

“They were big,” Jacobs said. “I hate to say it, but our rebounding has been a little bit bad. We try to get a little bit better rebounding all the time. But ... these are 16-, 17-year-old kids. They’re going to remember this for the rest of their lives. The only thing you can do as a coach is hope they follow the script, and give it their all.”

The Wildcats stuck to the script early, and three first-quarter 3-pointers helped set the tone. Senior forward Allie Yamaguchi popped a long wing 3 for the game’s first points, and So soon followed suit to make it 8-0. So came up with a steal off a sideline inbound in the back court — one of HMB’s 14 turnovers — to push it to 10-0.

“I think we moved the ball really well,” So said. “Everyone was going. It was really even. We ran our plays really well. Rachel got two really good baskets wide open. We just executed really well.”

HMB’s junior sharpshooter Xochitl Nieves fired back with a corner 3, and later scored on a gorgeous cutting layup with a Euro scoop finish to cut it to 13-9 with 37 seconds to play in the quarter. The momentum might have carried into the second quarter had it not been for So knocking down a 3 at the buzzer.

So finished with 15 points and, after HMB cut it to 16-14 on a pair of Dorwin free throws, the Whitney sophomore rattled home a left-handed floater as part of a 6-0 mini-run. The Cougars again closed it to 26-22 when Dorwin scored in transition with 55 seconds to play in the half. HMB got a stop, but missed a gimme layup to set the Wildcats into transition, with Wang drawing a foul on a made fast-break layup at the other end and converting the and-1 to give Whitney a 29-22 lead at the half.

“I think we got really good looks, looks most of these players would make more of if given the opportunity again,” Smith said. “And that’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.”

HMB (23-8) won the third quarter 13-12, highlighted by a Nieves splashdown from up top, and a midrange jumper from freshman Makena Glynn. Taking a 41-35 deficit into the fourth, the Cougars opened the final quarter with a Lemoge put-back.

After Wang scored a layup to make it 43-37, Lemoge came up with a big defensive stop with a momentum altering blocked shot, and at the other end Dorwin penetrated for a baseline drive. Dorwin looked to draw contact and got clobbered as she missed a short floater. There was no whistle, however, as Dorwin pried herself off the court. There were 26 total fouls called on both teams throughout, including just 19 fouls before the Cougars started playing free throws down by six points late.

“I love the physical aspect of basketball, so that doesn’t really bother me that much,” Haberman said. “But it was a super physical game. Rebounding was tough over [Wang].”

HMB graduates three seniors from the historic 2024-25 team, including Haberman, who returned from knee surgery in the second half of the season. That didn’t stop her from playing a key role in helping the Cougars to their first Nor Cal championship in program history, and earning the chance to walk onto the NBA court at Golden 1 Center Saturday morning.

“It’s a pretty incredible, awesome arena,” Smith said. “To be hosted here, it’s really beautiful. Just a beautiful opportunity for us, and we looked to make the most of it.”