M-A can’t keep pace with upstart Silver Creek

M-A’s co-Peninsula Athletic League Most Valuable Player tandem of Greer Hoyem and Carly McLanahan were both held relatively in check by Silver Creek’s dynamic defense. Hoyem totaled a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds while McLanahan managed just eight points.

The Bears shot just 21.7 percent from the field in the defensive spectacle.

“I just feel like we couldn’t hit shots tonight,” M-A head coach Markisha Coleman said. “… We didn’t get the open looks we normally get. But there were shots there.”

For Silver Creek — a team that had never previously reached a CCS championship game — the win was vindication for head coach Sonny Flores. It was 30 years previous while at Yerba Buena High School his team lost to the Menlo-Atherton boys in the CCS Division II finals.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Flores said. “I dreamt about it as a player at [Yerba Buena]. We played in the CCS championship game my senior year. As a coach it has been a motivating, driving force … to try to reach this game.”

The Augmon sisters were the reason Flores at last realized his dream. Junior forward Leilani Augmon (16 points, 13 rebounds) and freshman guard Aniyah Augmon (15 points, 11 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles. And their prolific defense — the two accumulated five steals — not only disrupted M-A’s shot selection, it prevented the Bears’ usually fluid passing from ever finding a tempo.

Silver Creek (17-11) never trailed, jumping out to an 8-2 lead. After the Raiders took an 18-13 advantage into halftime, M-A three times got to within two points, the latest coming at 26-24 with 4:42 remaining in regulation. From there, the Augmon show went primetime, with Leilani Augmon knocking down Silver Creek’s only 3-pointer of the game to spark an 11-3 run.

“It was a tough game for us tonight … but I’m proud of my girls,” Coleman said. “We got down a lot in the first half and before the end of the half we battled back. The second half we battled and the game got away from us mid-fourth quarter. But for the most part we battled.”

Silver Creek didn’t shoot much better than M-A, totaling 29.8 percent from the floor. But the Raiders dominated the boards, including a flurry of second chances with 13 offensive rebounds. Silver Creek outrebounded M-A 42-32 overall.

“I don’t think it was even just their post, it was all their players going in to rebound,” Coleman said, “… and they did get a lot of second chances. It’s hard to beat a team when you give them so many opportunities.”

M-A opened shooting just 1 of 12 in the first period as freshman guard Catharine Chai got the ball into Hoyem for the team’s only field goal of the quarter. It looked as though it was only a matter of time before Hoyem would get going in the post as Silver Creek center Bella Samatua got into foul trouble, incurring four fouls by midway through the second quarter.

Leilani Augmon and junior Alexa Othon bridged the gap though, rotating on defending Hoyem effectively.

“It’s a team effort,” Flores said. “Our girls, they came off the bench and put a body on Greer. She’s a heck of a player. We just won collectively as a team.”

M-A held Silver Creek to just five points in the third quarter. The Bears went on a 6-1 run with Hoyem getting creative by driving the baseline for a power layup to close it to 21-19. They kept the deficit at 2 to end the third quarter when Hoyem slipped behind the defense on a half-court inbound pass and got to the hoop uncontested.

But as the defensive sparring turned into a brawl, Silver Creek ran away with a 19-9 differential in the fourth quarter. McLanahan stepped up with magnificent defense, grabbing two steals in the period. But Leilani Augmon’s uncontested 3 started an 11-3 Silver Creek run, and the junior was even more potent on defense recording all three of her steals in the final stanza.

With the loss, Hoyem and McLanahan finish their careers without a CCS title. As freshmen in 2015, M-A fell in the Division I title game to North Salinas. The past two years, the Bears did not reach the championship round in the Open Division.

“Menlo-Atherton deserves a lot of credit,” Flores said. “Coach Markisha Coleman has done an outstanding job. Her program has been robbed of a CCS championship the last two years, I believe, because they got sucked up into the Open (Division). Otherwise they would have been Division I champions, most likely. She’s done a great job. A lot of credit goes to Menlo-Atherton because we had our hands full.”