Young HMB takes CCS girls’ hoops title

After totaling nine points and six rebounds — and manning up to defend 6-4 center Hanna Harvey — Bella Dioli enjoyed the final seconds from the sideline to soak in No. 1-seed Half Moon Bay’s 50-41 win over No. 2 Monte Vista Christian-Watsonville in the Central Coast Section Division IV girls’ basketball championships Saturday at the Peery Center Gym, the program’s second CCS title in four years.

“It was insane,” Bella Dioli said. “I don’t even know how to put it into words. It’s just everything I’ve been wanting for four years, ever since I was a part of that 2017 team. It was like an overwhelming feeling of excitement and hard work and tears all put into something.”

Indeed, the elder Dioli sister — her younger sister, freshman Alli Dioli, went for an identical nine points and six rebounds in the game — is the only remaining player to have rostered on Half Moon Bay’s first ever CCS girls’ basketball championship in 2016-17. And it was quite a sight as the 5-8 senior went from sitting on one of her teammate’s lap on the sideline, to jumping into the arms of assistant coach Martin Dioli, her father, as Alli Dioli went to the free-throw line in the closing seconds to put the game on ice.

The wonder of Bella Dioli’s second CCS rodeo, though, is the rest of the Half Moon Bay team is so young, with six underclassmen on roster, her teammates were noticeably unimpressed by their accomplishment.

“The emotion of it is, if you look at our girls, there’s very little emotion on them,” Cougars head coach Antonio Veloso said. “And I think because they’re so young, they don’t understand … and I’m looking at them like … you’ve got to enjoy this!

“I remember when we won three years ago and it was just going ape bonkers in [the locker room],” Veloso said. “And (this year) they were just … ‘so, we play on Tuesday?’”

On the court, however, the Cougars (24-3) remain quite the wild bunch.

Monte Vista (16-11) committed 19 turnovers, including eight in the first quarter. Playing fast and wild from the outset, Half Moon Bay committed nine of its 17 turnovers in the first quarter.

Sophomore guard Abby Kennedy personified the wild goodness the Cougars have relied upon all season. The second-year varsity player recorded a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, adding three assists, two steals and a blocked shot.

When asked about her performance, Veloso pivoted right to her attitude, remembering last year when “she was that kid with no emotion.”

This season is a different story, he said.

“She’s taken the challenge of, hey, enjoy this,” Veloso said. “And what you saw was a kid who dove for every single loose ball, smiled about it. That’s a 6-foot-4 kid, and she’s trying to go spider-monkey on her and try to go get it. That’s a kid that brings a lot of emotion and energy, and you can see it on her face. That’s what she brings.”

Kennedy enjoyed a tremendous finish to a strong first half. While Monte Vista was determined to get the ball to Harvey in the post — the 6-4 junior grabbed an offensive board and put-back to cut a Cougars lead to 18-15 — Kennedy fired back with back-to-back 3s to give Half Moon Bay its best lead of the half at 24-15.

Then Kennedy went primetime on a coast-to-coast bucket. Monte Vista lobbed a pass into the post for Harvey, yet Kennedy sniffed it out to grab a steal in stride, outrunning the defense to the other end for a double-clutch underhanded layup to send the Cougars into halftime up 26-18.

In the second half, however, Monte Vista opened on a 10-1 run to take the lead on a 9-foot jumper by sophomore Paloma Ramirez. The Cougars roared back with a 9-1 run of their own, with junior forward Genevieve Belmonte hitting a 10-foot baseline jumper to restore the lead at 32-30.

Monte Vista, however, refused to go quietly. Mustangs guard Marissa Cortes scored a team-high 12 points and knocked down a 3 to tie it with just over five minutes to play.

Then Alli Dioli went to work, totaling seven points in the closing period.

“Here’s the flipside of all this,” Veloso said. “I want the emotion and smiles and all that … but she has that calm. You can be high, you can be low, in her mind it’s the same thing, over and over again. ‘I’m just here to do my job and win.’ And that makes her special.”

With the game hanging in the balance, Alli Dioli broke the 39-39 tie with a calm, cool baseline floater. With the game again tied 41-41, Kennedy got to the line and exacted both free throws to give the Cougars the lead. Then after several wild series, Alli Dioli provided some breathing room by nailing a 3 out of the corner.

“I honestly can’t even tell you how she does it,” Bella Dioli said. “I think that a lot is going on in her mind, she can just slow down and she knows when something’s clutch. She’s really good at knowing what shot is her shot, and I think she just knew in that moment, and that was it.”

Next up for Half Moon Bay is the CIF Northern California Division IV tournament. The Cougars drew the No. 8 seed and will host No. 8 Caruthers Tuesday at 7 p.m.