Menlo girls three-peat as CCS Division IV champs

The No. 1-seed Knights (18-9) rolled to a 49-33 victory Saturday at Mission College over No. 2 Half Moon Bay, the same venue and opponent as last year’s CCS finals. And while many of Menlo’s key players shared in the last two titles, Cooper, new to the big dance, was aglow in the postgame trophy ceremony in accepting his first CCS title.

“It’s been a phenomenal year,” Cooper said. “It was a late hire; it was Halloween. So, for everything to come together … it took us some time for the program to get where I wanted it to get, and we still have some work to do … but credit to the girls because they really bought in.”

The game was eerily similar to last year’s CCS title game. In 2022-23, the Knights jumped out to a 20-10 first-quarter lead. This year, the disparity was even wilder, with Menlo opening on a 10-1 run and taking a 22-6 lead into the second quarter.

Half Moon Bay (16-10) has simply failed to find its shot in two years playing Menlo at Mission College. It took the Cougars over four minutes to make their first field goal of the game, they hit just four field goals in the first half and went on a shoot an abysmal 22.6% from the field throughout.

“We just had a cold shooting night,” HMB head coach Gabe Glynn said. “But hats off to Menlo. They played a great game, and they deserve it. We’re going to be back.”

One of the reasons Half Moon Bay is destined to be a CCS contender in future seasons is the presence of sophomore center Zoey Lemoge. The 6-foot transfer from Summit Denali-Sunnyvale — the campus was shuttered following the 2022-23 school year — totaled 13 points and eight rebounds Saturday, both team-highs.

However, Menlo’s huge lineup reconfiguration from a season ago held Lemoge scoreless through the first half. In the 2022-23 iteration of the Knights, Ruiqi Liu was a mainstay at guard while Summer Young manned the post. This year, the two have essentially switched roles, while allowing for 5-10 senior Arthi Abhyanker to anchor the post with her physical brand of play.

“[Abhyanker] didn’t have much of a role last year and we’ve asked a ton of her, especially defensively,” Cooper said. “And she’s one of the hardest working individuals I’ve ever met. Absolutely an overachiever for what she’s got to work with in terms of her size and body, and she goes to work every single game against bigger size, and she just prevails.”

Young still provides rebounds, for sure. The senior totaled a team-high nine boards Saturday, but also flashed her splash game with nine points, all on 3-pointers. Abhyanker, who scored a game-high 16 points, opened the game with a 3. Young added another long 3 amid Menlo’s 10-1 run.

“That was good, because our pregame speech was like: ‘We’re going to crush them,’” Liu said. “So, we did come out and set the tone for the rest of the game. But then we were also kind of wary, because they did come back from deficits before. So, basically, it’s a boost of confidence, but also tells us to keep going. It’s a good rhythm.”

The Knights let up in the second, at least on offense, scoring just four points in the quarter. HMB had attempted to implement a triangle and 2 in the first period but abandoned it to go back to a conventional man-to-man approach.

“Probably didn’t have enough experience with it to really do it right,” Glynn said. “So, we went to our man, and we played much better. So, we thought if we could keep up our defense and see a few shots go down, we could have a chance to climb back into it slowly but surely. It never really started going until the fourth quarter when we made a couple. It just wasn’t our night from the field.”

Menlo’s offense may have slowed, but its defense never did. HMB had its worst shooting quarter in the second, hitting just 2 of 15 from the field, while totaling just six points and trailing 26-12 at the half.

HMB junior Delaney Dorwin did her darndest to will her team back to relevance. She produced seven points, a game-high 13 rebounds and two steals while never leaving the floor. Six of those rebounds and both steals came in the second quarter.

“She went the whole game, and she just battled the whole time,” Glynn said. “She’s got a bunch of nagging stuff wrong and she’s just a total warrior. She’s just the type of kid you can throw out there and they’re going to find a way to make it work.”

Menlo found its stroke in the third quarter, with Abhyanker and Young each knocking down 3s to push the lead to 38-19. Liu cleaned up on the boards, totaling five of her eight total rebounds in the period.

The fourth quarter was more of a victory lap than anything else for the Knights, as freshman Ava Allen and senior Ana Banchs came off the bench to each score buckets.

“It means a lot since we did it last year,” Liu said of the repeat, flashing a big smile to express the ribbing she was about to hurl at HMB was to be taken in jest. “We’ve just got to engrain it into Half Moon Bay’s minds that we’re the better team.”