Summit Shasta upsets Jeff in all-Daly City showdown

The Black Bears’ 56-45 victory was something of a stunner, especially to Summit Shasta head coach Gerry Estay, whose team entered play with an 0-3 record against teams out of the Peninsula Athletic League North Division.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t think we could win this,” Estay said. “This is Jefferson. This is like a pipe dream.”

The three seniors on Summit Shasta’s roster are part of the third graduating class of the Daly City charter school located at the address of long-defunct Serramonte High School. And the Black Bears came ready to play physical, up-tempo basketball characteristic of some of those great Serramonte-Jefferson matchups of yesteryear.

“I feel it’s a really big game for us,” Summit Shasta senior Coral Yu said, “because we’re a small school playing against a school like Jefferson with so much history.”

Yu rose to the occasion, shining in every phase of the game. Not only did the senior total a season-high 25 points, she added six rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots.

Summit Shasta freshman Alison Blair added 20 points, as the Black Bears trailed briefly just once near the end of the first quarter. Yu, though, poured in a pair of free throws to give her team a 12-11 lead with 33 seconds remaining in the opening period. Summit Shasta never trailed again.

Jefferson, though, did not go down quietly.

“We played hard; they played really hard also,” Yu said. “It was a really intense game.”

The Grizzlies (4-7) have played fast and furious all season long under first-year head coach Marisa Carion. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her father Paul’s South City teams. Carion is a chip off the old block in terms of basketball acumen. In the postgame, she can cite in-game situations off the top of her head with ease, and does so just as her team plays the game — consistently pushing the action.

Where Jefferson faltered Thursday was in failing to protect the ball. The Grizzlies committed 30 turnovers throughout, and saved their worst for last with nine turnovers in the fourth quarter.

“Our girls didn’t have the poise they usually have,” Carion said.

Still, Jefferson made a run at it in the final period, much in part to guard Umari Hicks stepping up her game. The sophomore was one rebound shy of a double-double with 22 points and nine boards, and in the fourth quarter alone totaled eight points, two offensive rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“She’s never afraid to attack, she’s never afraid to take a hit,” Carion said. “She feeds her teammates and she has that fight. … There’s no quit in her at all.”

With Summit Shasta leading 40-31 at the start of the fourth quarter, Yu jumped out of her shoes for a steal at midcourt and an easy 2 in transition. The Black Bears took the ball right back and saw freshman Mellanie Hu score to up the lead to 44-31 with 7:23 to play.

Jefferson turned up the tempo, though, and went on a 10-2 run, capped by an underhand layup by junior Jazlyn Dela Cruz to cut the lead to 46-41.

The Grizzlies kept it there until 50-45, when Hicks floated a 5-foot running jumper high off the glass. Summit Shasta then committed one of its 17 turnovers on the night, but Jefferson couldn’t take advantage. The Grizzlies didn’t score again over the game’s final three minutes, with the Black Bears closing on a 6-0 run.

“We had our spurts,” Carion said. “It’s just we couldn’t close it.”

Summit Shasta was without one of its top players in junior Rebekah Estay, who played in the Black Bears’ previous game, a 47-40 win over the King’s Academy Dec. 19. She is slated to return for their next contest, the Jan. 3 PSAL North Division opener against Design Tech.

Yu, though, has been Summit Shasta’s leading scorer this season. Her 25 points Thursday topped her previous season-best of 24, which she scored Dec. 8 in a 61-57 loss to Oceana.