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Mustangs finish third at Westmont
By Dick Sparrer
It had been nearly a decade since the Westmont girls basketball team had last won a championship in the Pioneer Classic.
But the Warriors finished the 1990s just as they started the '90s--by winning a Pioneer championship.
Westmont whipped Soquel 48-39 in the Pioneer finals last Friday night to win its first Classic championship since 1990.
It's not like the Warriors hadn't been close at any point in the decade. Westmont finished second twice--in 1997 to Santa Cruz and in 1991 to Monta Vista. But a title had eluded the Warriors... until last week, that is.
Westmont crushed Monta Vista 37-9 and edged Homestead 35-32 before beating Soquel in the tournament championship game.
Senior guard-forward Sheryl Mafaffey poured in 35 points in the three games on her way to winning the tournament's most valuable player award.
Junior center Mia Simmons and senior forward Zuleeka Mohamed were other Warriors picked to the all-tourney list after helping their team to the championship.
Simmons led the Warriors with 12 points and Mahaffey canned nine in the win over Homestead in the semifinals. The Warriors had to fight back from a 28-20 deficit after three periods, outscoring Homestead 15-4 in the fourth quarter to win by three.
Homestead went on to finish third in the tournament, rebounding from the loss to Westmont to beat host Pioneer 53-24.
Julia Randall, who had fired in 14 points in the loss to the Warriors, scored 14 more to lead Homestead past Pioneer. Randall was named to the all-tournament team for her efforts.
Tanya Green chipped in with 11 points in the third-place game and Charlene Jarrett had nine. Vickie Chiang added seven points, Marie Levey and Adrienne Hoopes four apiece and Andrea Sandoval and Stephanie Malcolm two each.
Randall had the 14 points and Levey jammed 10, but the Mustangs lost to the Warriors 35-32. Green added four points and Sandoval and Chiang hit two apiece.
Homestead had opened the tournament with a 38-37 win over defending champion Santa Cruz. Levey led the Mustangs with 13 points and Chiang finished with nine. Randall had eight points, Green six and Sandoval two.
Heather Janssen had five points, but Monta Vista lost to Westmont in the first game of the tourney. The Matadors then lost to Santa Cruz before beating Live Oak 40-36 in the seventh-place game.
Homestead hopes
Homestead hopes to springboard from the third-place finish at Pioneer to a solid season in 1999-2000 after an outstanding year last winter.
"We are coming off of a dream season," said Homestead coach Wade Nakamura, when the Mustangs went 30-4, won league and Central Coast Section championships and made it to the Northern California finals. "That was the most wins in the history of the program and the farthest Homestead has ever gone."
Six players return from that solid club, including Chiang, a senior who won all-league first-team honors last year, and Green, a junior who was an all-league second team pick as a soph. Randall and Levey are other key returners from last year's squad.
"Our strength will be our interior play," said the coach. "We will have to find replacements for our three starting guards last year. The perimeter will have to improve for us to repeat the success we had last year."
Jarrett, a transfer, and Carolyn Whiteman are solid juniors joining the varsity this winter along with sophomores Sandoval and Hoopes and senior Rachel Fredrickson.
"The teams to beat this year are St. Francis, Westmont and Fremont," said Nakamura. "But we look forward to another great season."
Firebirds second
The Fremont girls, meanwhile, made it to the finals of the Mustang Classic in Gilroy last weekend before losing a 47-46 heartbreaker to Prospect in the championship game.
Senior forward Monique Gammon poured in 17 points and Daynelle Parker added 12, but it wasn't enough for the Firebirds. Gammon hit a three-pointer among her six field goals and she added four points at the line.
Shade Akanbi supported with eight points for Fremont, Robin Glass had four and Sarah Harvey hit one.
The Firebirds led by a point after a period, 6-5, and went up by eight at the half, 20-12. Fremont added to its lead by a point in the third quarter, but then the Panthers outscored the 'Birds 22-12 in the win by a point.
Fremont third
Ryan Lagod was shooting the lights out in the gym at the 33rd annual Westmont Invitational basketball tournament last week.
But luckily for basketball fans, that's just a figure of speech. The lights didn't actually go out, so fans were able to see the Del Mar junior pour in 57 points in three games, including 10 buckets from three-point range, to lead the Dons to the tournament championship.
Lagod buried 20 points in a tournament-opening 56-47 win over Piedmont Hills, and he came back with 26 points in a 61-49 victory over host Westmont a game later.
Then the junior guard popped 11 points to help the Dons to a 44-29 win over Willow Glen in the championship game.
At the tournamnent's end, the lights were shining on Lagod and his Del Mar teammates Jason Campbell, Kyle Kelly and Steve White as the Dons were well-represented on the all-tourney team.
Willow Glen's Guy Beahm and Casey Keegan, Fremont's Cameron McNeil and Renato Carlos, Prospect's Mike Senteio and Pioneer's Shawn Abadajos were other players selected to the Westmont all-tourney list.
Willow Glen moved into the finals with a 56-35 win over Fremont. Beahm had a big night with 29 points, including two threes. Keegan hit a three en route to a 13-point night.
McNeil and Devin Scott pitched in 10 points apiece to lead all Fremont scorers in the game. Glenn Marasigan finished with six points, Carlos had five and Jacob Esau hit four.
The Firebirds, who had opened with a 48-34 win over Los Gatos, finished up with a 64-52 victory over Westmont to clinch third place in the tourney.
McNeil led the Firebirds with 23 points in the win over the Warriors. The 6-foot-3 senior forward dropped three threes in the game.
Esau supported with 14 points and Marasigan ended up in double digits with 13. Jesse Enchill hit six points, Carlos five and Scott three.
Fremont had opened with the impressive win over Gatos. Carlos and McNeil shared team-high honors with 14 points apiece. Each player dropped a couple of threes.
Esau was close behind with 13 points, Dominik Stewart popped a three and Marasigan and Scott had two points each.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
