SAN JOSE — At this time of year, Sue Phillips is usually in full summer mode. The longtime Archbishop Mitty High coach would be getting ready for basketball camps and well into the AAU season.
But as with everything else amid the pandemic, this year is different.
Wednesday, Phillips guided her team to its sixth consecutive trip to the Central Coast Section Open Division championship game.
Behind a steady stream of pressure defense, Mitty, playing at home in San Jose, rolled to a 68-26 victory over Priory. The final four minutes were played with a running clock.
Mitty will play host to Pinewood or St. Ignatius in the final Friday.
The Monarchs have won each of the last five Open Division championships and will be seeking their 30th section title overall.
Their opponent Wednesday had never been invited to the CCS’s top division until this tournament. Priory had only seven players on its roster and one didn’t play against Mitty because of injury.
Mitty limited Priory to six points in each of the first three quarters while building a 32-point cushion.
Phillips was proud of the defense.
“Holding a team like that, with incredible offensive firepower, to single digits each quarter was a testament to our team defense and schemes,” she said.”We continued to be relentless regardless of who was in the game.”
Olivia Williams led the Monarchs in scoring with 13 points. Amelia Scharpf added 10 points, and Hunter Hernandez finished with eight points before departing with an ankle injury.
All three will report to UC Irvine later this month.
They and the other seniors on Mitty’s roster graduated nearly two weeks ago but, as Phillips said, “They’re completely locked in. Totally committed to finishing the race. Much appreciation and respect.”
Phillips said “we’ll see” when asked about Hernandez’s status for the final.
“Hunter’s one of the toughest kids we’ve ever coached,” she said. “I am certainly not counting her out.”
Junior Valentina Saric led Priory with 10 points.
“We had nothing to lose,” she said. “Absolutely nothing. We told ourselves we have to go in and give it our all. We were the underdogs. We weren’t looking at it if we were going to win or lose. We were just going to give it everything we had. We didn’t give up. Even with their crazy press, we still kept going.”
Priory coach Buck Matthews viewed it as a stepping stone for his program. The tiny private school with fewer than 300 students had won the past four CCS Division V titles.
The Panthers reached the Open semifinals by beating Valley Christian in the previous round.
“I am so proud of my girls,” Matthews said. “Coming in here, playing in the Open Division for our first time, a school of under 300, what can you ask for? We weren’t intimidated. We weren’t afraid. We game planned. They didn’t execute exactly what we wanted. But I can’t be mad at this group, playing with six girls is tough against that machine.”
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