| | Published March 13th, 2013
| Girls Basketball Playoff Review: Heartbreak and Hard Work
| | By Conrad Bassett |  | | Ashley Ewing
|
The Miramonte and Campolindo girls' basketball teams had a busy two-weeks wrapping up the North Coast Section tournament and beginning the CIF State tournaments. Miramonte reached the NCS Finals, and lost in the first round of the CIF tournament. Campolindo lost in the NCS semifinals, but reached the CIF semifinals on March 12.
On February 27, No. 2 Miramonte completed the season sweep against No. 3 Campolindo, beating the Cougars 87-66.
With the win, Miramonte advanced to the NCS Finals on March 2, where they faced Bishop O'Dowd for the second straight year.
With five division-1 commits, the Dragons outmatched the Mats. Miramonte fell 77-48.
By virtue of reaching the NCS semifinals, Miramonte qualified for the CIF NorCal tournament. They were surprised by being pulled up to the Open Division as a No. 7 seed. A new feature of the regional tournament, the top teams from Northern California are pulled from their respective divisions to compete against other top schools in the Open Division. While Miramonte could be happy with the recognition they are a top program, getting pulled from the Division III bracket also meant reaching the state title was less likely.
In the first round of the tournament, Miramonte traveled to play No. 2 St. Mary's (Stockton), who is ranked No. 16 in the country. Despite battling back from double-digit deficits, the Mats could not pull out the win, and they lost a heartbreaker 62-63. Freshman Sabrina Ionescu led the Mats with 19 points.
Even with the tough losses, head coach Kelly Sopak was very pleased with his team's effort all season long. He was particularly happy with the camaraderie. "One of the first things we established when we came to Miramonte was a culture of 'team,'" he said.
He also spoke to the importance of DFAL Most Valuable Player Carly Gill. "[She] will be next to impossible to replace," Sopak explained. "It has been such an advantage for us because we have an extension of me on the court for 32 minutes, guiding the rest of the team."
Miramonte finished 27-3 on the year with the losses all coming to nationally ranked teams. "You never know what the next year will be like so we are going to savor this season for a while," added Sopak. The Mats return six DFAL All-league players next year.
Campolindo qualified for the CIF regional tournament by virtue of reaching the NCS semifinals. They earned the No. 5 seed in the Division III bracket.
Campolindo played host to No. 12 Placer (Auburn) on March 6. They handily defeated the visitors, 62-47. Junior Ashley Ewing led the effort with 32 points.
Head coach Elgin Leslie praised his seniors for their efforts. "I can't say enough about what Ashley and senior Laura Hickey have meant to the team. They have been consistently strong all year, and provided great leadership." He added, "Senior Courtney Seyranian has quietly had a great year."
With the win, Campo advanced to the quarterfinals. They traveled to play Christian Brothers (Sacramento). Despite leading for most of the game, they had to score the last six points to eke out the 57-55 road win.
On March 12, after the press deadline, Campolindo traveled to San Francisco to play the top seed, Sacred Heart Cathedral. Check lamorindaweekly.com for results.
After a surprising run in the playoffs, Leslie attributes his team's success to hard work and dedication.
"In November, we listened to a lot of people predicting that the league would come down to Dublin and Miramonte," Leslie explained. "It would have been easy to give in at any time and just play as individuals, but they continued to believe and continued to improve."
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 | | Sabrina Jonescu Photos Andy Scheck
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA