Menlo claims first state title in 28 years

Menlo nailed five 3-pointers in the first quarter and never trailed after the opening minute, rallying for a 70-63 win Saturday afternoon over Rolling Hills Prep-San Pedro in the CIF Division II Girls’ State Basketball Championship game.

“We have a fairly young team,” Menlo head coach John Paye said. “This is something we weren’t expecting at the beginning of the season. So, it makes it even more meaningful.”

The state championship marks the fourth all-time for Menlo (26-5 overall), all with Paye at the helm. Currently in his second tenure with the team, Paye’s other three titles came during his first tenure when the Knights enjoyed a Division V dynasty with a three-peat from 1989-91.

Some 28 years later, Paye’s original powerhouse might as well be ancient history to this year’s roster of players. It’s a circle-of-life changing of the guard for Paye to now be the sage veteran, when he was in just his third season of coaching when the original run of state titles began.

“I can now say this is the most meaningful one because back then it seemed like everything was happening easy,” Paye said. “And I now realize how hard it is to do something like this.”

The Knights made it look easy though. Sophomore forward Coco Layton totaled a game-high 17 points and was one of four Menlo players to score in double figures. Layton had never set foot in Golden 1 Center prior to Saturday’s pregame shootaround. Despite the grand arena, she went through her pregame ritual of getting acquainted with the corner of 3-point land.

Come game time, she looked ready for primetime, knocking down two early 3s. Sophomore forward Maeia Makoni added three 3s in the first quarter, as Menlo responded to Rolling Hills’ opening basket of the game with a 13-1 run, and held a 21-9 advantage after the opening eight minutes.

“I shoot from the corners a lot, so I think that helps a lot because I’m somewhat used to it,” Layton said.

Sophomore point guard Avery Lee was the catalyst of Menlo’s offense. As the Knights’ leading scorer, averaging 17 points per game this season, Lee was astute to the fact she could draw Rolling Hills’ defenders with any sign of penetrating the lanes. The strong, two-handed savvy of the 5-8 guard made her a defense magnet, and she used the draw to rack up assists by kicking passes out to Layton and Makoni.

Lee finished with 15 points — despite shooting just 4 of 15 from the floor herself — and added eight rebounds and nine assists.

“It was really great,” Lee said. “I was just really trusting my teammates. … Just driving in and drawing the defense and kicking it out. I knew they would make them. So, I’m very proud.”

Rolling Hills, though, is no stranger to big deficits. The Huskies (27-5) had experience on their side, playing in their third straight state championship game, including last year’s CIF Division IV championship by knocking off Northern California No. 1-seed Woodside Priory in state finals.

This year, Rolling Hills has continued to write one comeback-kids story after another. Even in defeat, the Huskies have been formidable. While they dropped their Southern Section Division 2-AA championship game 51-50 to Orange Lutheran, they trailed in that game by 15 points. Rolling Hills even got to the line in the closing seconds with a chance to win it, but missed both free throws.

“We’ve been behind before,” Rolling Hills head coach Richard Masson said. “That’s why we felt like, even though we got behind early, we could come back. And we had opportunities … but that’s basketball. They made plays.”

Menlo looked in control, building a 34-19 lead with 1:32 left in the first half after sophomore Danielle McNair and Layton knocked down back-to-back 3s. But the Huskies responded, with sophomore Rylie Akahiki and junior Maddie Yamada responding with consecutive 3s to send it into halftime with a single-digit differential at 34-25.

“They keep coming back, they keep coming back, they keep coming back,” Paye said. “I didn’t say that too much over the course of this week to the girls behind me, but I knew it. They attack the basket, they get it in to their center, and they don’t give up. And that’s a primary reason they’ve been to three state championship games in a row.”

Clarice Akunwafo, Rolling Hills’ 6-4 sophomore center, matched Layton’s game-high with 17 points. But while Menlo was struggling to rebound through the opening three quarters, a surprise defensive assignment held Akunwafo in check on the boards.

While three Rolling Hills players rebounded in double figures — Alyssa Maxey grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, Tatum Tamashiro had 11 and Naya Stroud added 10 — Akunwafo managed just seven. She led the team with 12.2 rebounds per game on the year.

Akunwafo, though, spent the preceding days scouting Menlo center Sharon Nejad, thinking the 5-10 freshman would be defending her. Instead, Makoni, at 5-8 but with a stronger Draymond Green-like presence, tied her up all day long.

“Maeia did a great job of boxing out [Akunwafo],” Nejad said. “It let me and the other girls who were smaller, we were able to go around. … We were boxing out. We had the whole key, the whole umbrella open, and someone in on our team would just swoop in and get the rebound.”

That swooping paid off in the fourth quarter as Menlo solved its rebounding woes. At halftime, the disparity on the boards was 12 in favor of Rolling Hills. By game’s end, the Huskies outrebounded the Knights by a slim margin of 49-47.

Still, Rolling Hills whittled down Menlo’s lead to close within one score at 49-46 with 30 seconds remaining in the third period. Nejad finished the quarter with an offensive rebound and put-back to spark a 7-2 run, and went on to record a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Knights managed just two field goals in the fourth quarter but shot a daunting 12 of 17 from the free-throw line over the final eight minutes to seal the win. Sophomore guard Georgia Paye — the youngest of John Paye’s three daughters, all of whom have played for him at Menlo — was 4 of 4 from the stripe in the closing minutes, including two to put the game away at 69-61.

With all five starters returning — Menlo only graduates senior Lauren Sun Mi Oh after this season — the Knights now have the makings of a second state dynasty.

“We definitely have a lot more expectations now,” Lee said. “But I think every person on this team is going to take up that challenge of just sticking together as tight as we are.”

As for now, Menlo is basking in the sunshine of its first state crown in 28 years. And those stylish Haku crowns — made of flowers, by hand, courtesy of Lee’s and Makoni’s mothers — are certainly a fitting fashion statement to wrap up the historic 2018-19 season.

“Yeah, I think we really deserve these crowns,” Makoni said.