St. Ignatius denies Mills a CCS championship

"Going into the game, the plan was to go inside and see what we could do," said St. Ignatius coach Julie Guevara.

The game started out as a slugfest between the two schools. Mills used the pressure defense of Danielle Simon, Tiffany Callahan and Lavinia Fanaika as a counterbalance to the height of S.I., which was paced by 6 foot 4 inch Nicole Canepa, who scored at will on a wide variety of putbacks, drop steps and jump shots.

Early in the game, the Wildcats led 19-13, but Fanaika would not let the Wildcats pull away. Every time the Wildcats would score in the paint, Fanaika would come back with a drive to the hoop or a 3-pointer to shorten the Wildcats lead. At halftime, the Wildcats led 27-22, but it looked as if the speed of the Vikings was working.

At the start of the third quarter, using tight man-to-man pressure defense, the Vikings were able to frustrate the Wildcat guards as they brought the ball up the court, causing turnovers and disrupting their offense.

But as the game wore on, the combination of Canepa and 6 foot 4 inch Elise Wilson towered over Mills for easy putbacks and tough points in the paint. St. Ignatius began to exert its will every time it looked as if Mills was going to get into the game. At the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats had a six-point lead.

Then the Wildcats defense and Wilson stepped up.

The Wildcats began to play-lock down defense on Fanaika and Simon, as the Vikings' drives to the basket were stopped, forcing them had to settle for jump shots that were not going in. Wilson also made two key buckets late in the fourth quarter to put a dagger in heart of the Vikings' chances. Mills was forced to foul to get back into the game and the Wildcats made several free throws in the final minutes to ice the victory.

"We got it down to 36-33, but we could not answer with some of the missed 3s that were taken," said Mills coach Dan Salvemini. "S.I. played tough and they used their size to their advantage. We also had some turnovers that helped them and hurt us."

Britney Blythe, the Wildcats starting point guard, believed that the continued focus on the inside play was the key to the game.

"We played 32 minutes of S.I. basketball," said Blythe. "Nicole dominated inside and the guards did a good job of ball faking and getting the ball inside."

Canepa finished with 16 points, Kerry Grady had eight, Wilson with eight and Blythe with seven points. The Vikings were paced by Fanaika with 19, Simon with six and Callahan with five points.

While the Wildcats won the game, the Vikings' season is not over. They will play at least one more game as both teams move on to the Division III Northern California playoffs which will begin next week, which pleased Fanaika.

"Even though we lost this game, the feeling of being in second place will stay with me," said Fanaika. "This is something that I want to change, as we move on to the NorCals."