Mills ousted in heartbreaker

“It was tough, the seniors’ last game,” Mills head coach Dave Matsu said of addressing the team in the postgame locker room. “I was so proud of this team to make a run the way they did in the Nor Cals. … I thought we had a great year. Our seniors left a legacy. Our returning players have some big shoes to fill.”

No. 4-seeded Mills (17-12 overall) had only reached the regional quarterfinals once before in program history in 2004-05. Mills looked as though they were on their way to surpassing that feat when No. 5 Pleasant Valley, trailing 36-34, was forced to run the length of the floor with 12 seconds remaining.

In the preceding timeout, Matsu instructed his players to foul. It was a good strategy. Mills had three fouls to give before reaching the penalty, and used one in the backcourt, forcing Pleasant Valley (18-11) to inbound near midcourt with eight seconds to play.

Mills attempted to foul again as the ball crossed midcourt, but didn’t produce enough contact as junior Cassidy King drove up the court and, as she reached the top of the key, kicked an outlet pass to a wide-open Moore on the perimeter. The junior guard then quickly dialed up a stone-cold swish for the game-winner.

“She’s spotty … so tonight it was a good time to catch fire,” Pleasant Valley head coach Bob Paddock said. “I thought they were going to keep fouling. Thank God they didn’t call it.”

Moore finished with 9 points, 6 coming in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Christiane Carlisle led Pleasant Valley with 13 points.

Mills was led by four-year varsity senior Chloe Tam with a game-high 18 points, though 16 of them came in the first half. After the break, Pleasant Valley changed up its defense to throw a man-to-man double team at Tam, with Moore and junior Shaley Vieg effectively shutting her down. 

“The first half they were playing zone and they were sagging off a little bit, so I felt more comfortable shooting and driving in,” Tam said. “And in the second half they adjusted and got more up on me and started double-teaming me when I was driving in. So, it kind of impacted my scoring.”

After taking a 34-29 lead with just under three minutes to play on a put-back by junior forward Victoria Williams, Mills saw the advantage dwindle to 1. King followed with a short jumper for Pleasant Valley. Then after Mills turned it over on a traveling violation, Carlisle floated up an underhand baseline floater from 5 feet away to cut the lead to 34-33 with a 1:36 to go.

Mills slowed it down on its following possession, but as Tam attempted to move the ball toward the hoop with 10 seconds remaining on the shot clock, the Pleasant Valley double-team converged, causing Tam to ultimately force up a 10-foot desperation shot as the possession buzzer sounded, but the resulting air ball forced another turnover.

“I wanted to use the clock as opposed to getting up and down the court; we wanted to use as much as possible,” Matsu said. “We missed four 2-footers in the fourth quarter, backdoor layups, so we missed some good shots.”

Mills, though, caught a break as Pleasant Valley turned it over attempting to bring the ball up. Tam got to the free-throw line at the other end, hitting one from the stripe to make it 35-33. The teams then traded single free throws, with Moore making 1 of 2, followed by Mills senior Mikaela Nava going to the line with 12.1 seconds remaining, hitting the front end of a 1-and-1 but missing the second.

Pleasant Valley grabbed the rebound and called a quick timeout to set up its fateful game-winner.

“In the timeout, we told them in the timeout, if your girl is starting to go by you, you need to foul,” Matsu said. “And then no 3s on the perimeter … and those two things didn’t happen.”

It was quite a postseason run for Mills after dropping its last three regular-season games in Peninsula Athletic League South Division play. The group, including six seniors — with three four-year varsity players, including Kiyana Castaneda and Rachel Dumandan — then reached the Central Coast Section Division III finals, just the third time in program history Mills appeared in a CCS championship game.

“When people thought we wouldn’t make the CCS, people thought we wouldn’t win three or four games in league,” Matsu said. “So, for these kids to rise to the occasion and make it to … the quarterfinals of the Nor Cals. It doesn’t get any better than that. There’s about a hundred other teams that wish they were playing tonight.”