Mills battles past Summit Shasta

“That’s big,” Mills head coach Justin Matsu said. “I’m really proud of those bench kids. ... It was good for us to see scoring. That’s what we’ve been missing.”

Senior forward Layla Wong, having missed the first 15 games of the season, made her season debut to round out the full roster contingent. She didn’t get in the scoring column, but eight Mills players did, with point guard Kelly Ho, and reserves Jacelyn Lam and Alana Stonebarger sharing the team-high with nine points apiece.

“It’s huge,” Matsu said of getting getting fully healthy with eight games remaining in the regular season. “I think our last five games, from the offensive standpoint, has been awesome. Because you see our continuity getting better. We’re sharing it better, we’re playing a little bit better. It’s just nice having bodies each and every day.”

Mills (7-9) converted five 3-pointers in the game, with the biggest splash coming from Stonebarger in the second quarter.

“We have a lot of good talent, a lot of consistent shooters,” Stonebarger said. “And we just try to distribute it and kind of give the green light to anyone.”

Summit Shasta — with an abbreviated roster of nine players, including six freshmen, eight underclassmen, and no seniors — dueled through the early going. The first quarter saw four lead changes before Mills finished on a 9-0 run to take a 13-6 lead into the second. The Black Bears fired back, opening the second with a 7-0 run of their own, tying it on a cutting layup by freshman Daina Randall, who scored 12 of her game-high 20 points in the period.

The Vikings barreled right back down the court and the 5-foot Stonebarger took advantage of the green light, squaring up to connect for a wing 3 to retake the lead 16-13. Mills would lead the rest of the way.

“We’ve really just been able to dig deep,” Stonebarger said. “And especially in those certain situations, especially when it gets tough when other teams kind of smack us in the face, we just try to dig deep and try to just find ourselves as a team, as individuals, and play hard just to get back.”

Summit Shasta (9-8) kept it a one-score game as sophomore Gabby Manuel tossed an assist pass into the paint for a Randall layup, cutting it to 16-15. But an 8-2 Mills run, capped by a steal by senior Kaylee Huynh and a put-back from Ho to up it to 24-17.

The Black Bears cut it to a one-score deficit once more, late in the third quarter, when sophomore Lyric Sabado pulled down an offensive board off a missed 3 and powered right back to the hoop to make it 34-32. The Vikings pulled away from there, though, with their bigs, senior Amaya Moore and junior Nina Kerri, dominating on the glass in the fourth quarter.

Moore broke her streak of four straight double-doubles but finished with a game-high 10 rebounds, while Kerri totaled seven. Mills outrebounded Shasta 39-27 overall.

“They’re still trying to find their identity,” Summit Shasta head coach Rudy Cayas said. “So, certain times they’ll make a certain mistake that they shouldn’t make. But it all comes with the territory. They’re very young. For a freshman and sophomore dominant team, there’s so much room to grow.”

After graduating five seniors from last year’s Central Coast Section Division V runner-up team, Summit Shasta was left with just three returning players. Cayas knew he’d have at least enough players to field a team in 2025-26 with three incoming freshman guaranteed admission into the charter school — both Randall’s and Lee’s older brothers attended Summit Shasta, Karisma Cayas being the daughter of Rudy Cayas — with enrollment otherwise determined by lottery.

The lottery was kind to Shasta, as three other freshmen — Ailee Binauhan, Yurry Manuel and Delilah Baltazar — bringing previous basketball experience. Rudy Cayas said without them he still would have been able to field a team, but it would have been tough.

“I probably would have,” Rudy Cayas said. “We probably would have tried to pick up more players that didn’t have any background in basketball.”

Randall previously played for Rudy Cayas on the AAU circuit with DC’s Finest, but she only met Lee for the first time when the two reported for summer workouts with Shasta. The two have returned the Black Bears to Private School Athletic League dominance, though, with Lee averaging 15.3 points per game and Randall right behind with 13.2 ppg average.

“[Lee] is a really good leader,” Randall said. “And she’s not really selfish with the ball, either. She could probably keep the ball the whole game if she wants to, but she doesn’t. She’ll make sure we get open.”

At 5-8, Randall plays bigger than she is. In addition to leading all scorers with 20 points Saturday, she fell a rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards.

“We have to utilize her,” Rudy Cayas said. “She’s one of the biggest prospects that we have. ... She still needs a lot of work, but ... she’s doing what she has to do right now. And she’s doing a great job.”

Shasta is now 2-4 against Peninsula Athletic League teams this season. In league play, the Black Bears continue to rule the PSAL, securely in first place with a 5-0 record. The program has won 57 straight PSAL games dating back to 2019-20.

Mills, currently tied for fourth place in the PAL Bay Division, heads into its toughest week of the season, with three games in four days, including back-to-back games against the league frontrunners, hosting Tuesday against first-place Half Moon Bay, and traveling Wednesday to Menlo-Atherton.