Menlo-Atherton falls in Nor Cal finals

After storming the CIF Northern California girls’ basketball tournament with three wins, including two upsets, No. 11-seed Menlo-Atherton’s Cinderella run came to an end Tuesday with a 40-36 loss in the Division III regional finals at No. 4 Valley Christian.

Valley Christian’s disruptive defense gave the Bears fits. M-A turned over the ball 19 times in the game, including 11 in the second half.

“Their defense was great,” M-A head coach Steve Yob said. “They amped up the pressure on our guards and they made it hard for us to run plays, just get the ball past half (court). So, we tried a couple different things, but I would say that was the game. Just their defensive ball pressure.”

Valley Christian (16-15) may have settled for fifth place in the six-team West Catholic Athletic League, but the Warriors took it to the Peninsula Athletic League this season with wins over Aragon in the Central Coast Section Division II championship game, and to M-A to claim the Nor Cal championship.

“I think they’re one of the toughest defenders that we went against,” M-A senior Lita Fakapelea said. “We couldn’t really deal with their pressure today.”

M-A (24-6) led most of the way, including a 36-33 advantage with 2:55 to play when Fakapelea hit a pair of free throws. It was the last points the Bears scored, however, as they had a heck of a time scoring in the fourth quarter, converting no field goals on 12 attempts, while going 4 for 4 from the free-throw line.

While the 3-point shot has served M-A so well throughout its postseason run — one that included a CCS Division I championship — the Bears weren’t able to get looks from long range in San Jose, hitting just 1 of 7 from beyond the arc in the game, a second-quarter 3 from senior guard Luisa Tava.

“This tournament run we’ve been on, Lita and Luisa have been crushing it from 3, they’ve been just lights out,” Yob said. “So, they kind of took away the 3-ball from them.”

Valley Christian’s shooting performance was even more anemic. While M-A converted at a 35.0% clip from the field, the Warriors shot just 26.8%. Valley’s worst stretch came in the third quarter, where the tale of the tape was a bizarre comparison, as M-A attempted just seven shots in the period, but made four. The Warriors shot the ball 19 times in the third quarter, but hit just two.

“We were really satisfied with our defense,” Fakapelea said. “Just, shots weren’t hitting today.”

The Warriors were struggling with 3-point looks from the corner. So, in the fourth quarter, head coach Chris McSwain’s team deferred to sophomore Aly Liu. While senior guard Kenedi Nomura shared the game-high with 12 points, it was Liu’s two midrange jumpers early in the fourth quarter that kept Valley Christian in the game.

“In their defense, we have to make corner 3s, and we didn’t make corner 3s,” McSwain said. “So, we had to make an adjustment and drive it towards the middle, collapse the defense, and that was our adjustment in the fourth quarter.”

Liu finished with nine points, but has been struggling with her shot throughout the postseason. Both her fourth-quarter looks were off passes out of the corner. The sophomore was shaking and moving to get open, but steadied her release to twice cut M-A leads to 1 — first at 34-33 with 3:04 to go, and then following Fakapelea’s free throws to keep it at 36-35 with 2:37 left

“Those were amazing shots,” Yob said. “We like giving up midrange. We’ll close off the 3-point line, especially to this team. And that midrange shot, that’s kind of the shot we wanted. Give her credit, she hit both. Those are amazing shots.”

Valley Christian took the lead on its next possession, a transition push off an M-A turnover with freshman guard Rythm Aragones finishing a layup, giving the Warriors a 37-36 edge with 1:59 remaining in regulation.

M-A’s post players accounted for 14 points, with sophomore forward totaling eight points and seven rebounds, and senior center Apé Ulukivaiola scoring six points. Down the stretch, though, the Warriors collapsed on the passing lanes and refused open looks. The Bears got two stops, including denying the Warriors a second-chance look on an offensive rebound with one minute to play.

“We got to our bigs,” Yob said. “Our bigs played well, I thought, down low, I thought we had an advantage there. We just couldn’t get them the ball late. There was just too much ball pressure ... to get the bigs the ball.”

After the Bears scooped up a loose ball and snuck in a timeout just before Valley tied up a possession, a contested baseline floater was off target for Nomura to grab the rebound and draw a foul with two seconds to play. Nomura hit both free throws to put the win on ice.

Fakapelea shared the game-high with 12 points. Valley senior center Anaya Bannarnie added seven points with a game-high 17 rebounds, as the Warriors won the boards 38-33.

“It was a hell of a season,” Yob said “I had no plans of going to Nor Cal finals. We wanted to win CCS. That’s kind of a goal of mine. That was amazing that we did that this year. And then just to get to Nor Cals, to get to these finals, kind of a cherry on top. Obviously, we thought we could have won this game. We didn’t. But just getting here is such an accomplishment.”

With the win, the Warriors advance to the CIF Division III state championship game, to take on Southern California champion El Dorado-Placentia Friday afternoon at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.