The argument is as simple and definitive as the counter argument.
St. Mary's senior Chelsea Gray finished stellar career.
Photo by Jann Hendry
is the top team in the country because it took over the top spot 10 weeks ago and has not shown a single sign of vulnerability since.
In fact, the Rams finished a 33-1 season in the most dominating way imaginable, an 89-41 victory over Bishop Amat (La Puente, Calif.) for the CIF State Division III championship on Saturday, setting a state mark for points scored and margin of victory. Under state rules, the fourth quarter was played with a running clock otherwise the Rams likely would have hit triple digits.
St. Mary’s coach Tom Gonsalves didn’t exactly tell his girls to set records or win by 48 against a perennial state power, but he definitely lit a fire under them telling them they should play with a chip on their shoulder.
“I think they played with that today,” Gonsalves said after the game. “The girls played nearly flawless.”
The St. Mary’s coach got his team inspired because debates swirled last week about second-ranked Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) (32-1) overtaking St. Mary’s for the top spot.
The Monarchs’ case simply is this: they beat St. Mary’s straight up, 66-60 in the finals of the Nike Tournament of Championships in Phoenix in December.
Mater Dei coach Kevin Kiernan, not as overt as Gonsalves, brought up that fact up last following his team’s 58-43 win over Carondelet for the CIF State Division II title.
He calmly listed all the impressive wins Mater Dei had this season, including over state champion Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.), state finalists St. Anthony (Long Beach, Calif.) and Poly (Long Beach, Calif.) and non-California state champs Hillsboro (Nashville, Tenn.), Jefferson (Ore.) and Young (Chicago, Ill.).
“Oh yes, and we beat St. Mary’s head-to-head,” Kiernan said.
Predictably, both head coaches were adamant they thought their teams deserved to be No. 1.
They each have remarkable tandems, St. Mary’s boasts the only high school team in America with two McDonald’s All-Americans, Afure Jererigbe and Chelsea Gray.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis shoots over long arm of Carondelet.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
The Mater Dei counters with arguably the nation’s top junior Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and top sophomore Jordan Adams.
So ultimately, we had to make a choice. And we went with the former logic, rather than the latter.
On Jan. 19, we picked St. Mary’s No. 1 in the country based on the fact the Rams were second behind Mater Dei and when the Monarchs lost to Brea Olinda. At that point, Brea defeated Mater Dei to move to No. 2 and St. Mary's had defeated Brea to move to No. 1.
We deemed them No. 1 in the country.
Since that time the Rams have gone 17-0 and besides an 11-point win over perennial state and national power Berkeley, the closest margin of victory was a 25 points, that against Sacramento, a team previously in the Xcellent 25 with at least two Division I players that St. Mary’s also beat by 30 and 42.
Simply, nothing has changed with the Rams in that time. In fact, they’ve only improved fairly dramatically. Thus, even though Mater Dei avenged its loss to Brea Olinda, thus aligning the Monarchs with St. Mary’s head-to-head, the Rams remain at the top.
Though, as Gonsalves himself wished out loud heading into the state finals, we too would have loved to seen a rematch of the two powers.
Lastly, to that point, after watching both teams at the state finals in Bakersfield, St. Mary’s looked at this point the better team. The Monarchs will always be able to shoot down that theory with a “but we proved it on the court, not on paper or speculation.”
Bottom line, both are state champs and will go down as two of the finest teams in state history.
In other California news, previous No. 4 Long Beach Poly was stunned by Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) in the CIF State Division I finals, stopping a four-year stranglehold on the Division for the Jackrabbits. It also vaulted Oak Ridge into the Xcellent 25 at No. 24.
The Trojans received 26 points from Stanford-bound Sara James in the victory.
A three-week layup evidently hurt previous No. 8 Bergtraum (New York, N.Y.) (25-1) which lost in the New York State Federation Class AA semifinals to Christ the King (Middle Village, N.Y.) and Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh, Pa.) moved up two spots to No. 7 with its second straight state title.
Xcellent 25 National High School Girls Basketball Rankings
1. (1) St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.), 33-1
The Rams set a state championship-game record for points and margin of victory with 89-41 Division III championship win over Bishop Amat-La Puenta. McDonald's All-American Chelsea Gray and Afure Jemerigbe had 20 and 19 points, respectively.
2. (2) Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), 32-1
Madison Cable of Mt. Lebanon.
Photo by Paul Burdick
The Monarchs won the CIF State Division II title with a 58-43 win over Carondelet-Concord. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 21 points despite playing just 19 minutes due to foul trouble. Jessica Duarte added 19 points.
3. (3) Davis (Indianapolis, Ind.), 28-0 Season is complete.
4. (6) Cy-Fair (Cypress, Texas), 36-1Season is complete.
5. (5) Brea Olinda (Brea, Calif.), 31-3 Season is complete.
6. (7) Bolingbrook (Ill.), 29-1
Season is complete.
7. (9) Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh, Pa.), 28-2
Madison Cable sprung for 30 points as Mt. Lebanon breezed to its second straight AAAA title with a 70-43 victory over Archbishop Ryan on Friday. See story by Chris Rossetti.
8. (10) Hoover (Ala.), 33-1
Season is complete.
9. (11) Mansfield Timberview (Arlington, Texas), 37-2
Season is complete.
10. (4) Poly (Long Beach, Calif.), 32-3
The Jackrabbits picked a bad day to come in cold and flat as it was handled thoroughly by an Oak Ridge team that had never played in a state finals. Most of the Jackrabbits return so look for them to make amends next season.
11. (12) Young (Chicago, Ill.), 28-3
Season is complete.
12. (13) Midwest City (Midwest City, Okla.), 25-2
Season over. Won 6A state title.
13. (14) MacArthur (Irving, Texas), 37-2
Season is complete.
14. (15) Neptune (Neptune, N.J.), 29-1
Season is complete. Neptune won state and TOC titles.
15. (16) Incarnate Word Academy (St. Louis, Mo.), 30-1
Season over, won state title.
16. (17) North Little Rock (Ark.), 31-0
Season over, won 7A state title.
17. (19) Auburn Riverside (Auburn, Wash.), 29-0
Season is complete.
18. (20) Lakeville North (Lakeville, Minn.), 32-0
Season over, won AAAA-Section 3 title.
19. (20) Norcross (Norcross, Ga.), 28-4
Season over, won state AAAAA finals
20. (23) Redan (Stone Mountain, Ga.), 30-1
Season over, lost in state AAAAA finals to Norcross.
Oak Ridge senior Sara James led charge on Saturday.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
Season over, won state AAA title.
22. (23) Southridge (Beaverton, Ore.), 26-2
Season over, won state 6A title
23. (24) Princess Anne (Vir. Beach, Va.), 29-2
Season over, state AAA runner-up. Only losses to Lake Taylor.
24. (NR) Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills, Calif.), 32-3
Not only a win over Poly, but early in the season knocked off No. 5 Brea Olinda and above-mentioned Berkeley for Northern California title two weeks ago. As good as James was, it was the three-point shooting of Dakota McLaman, who made four of them and scored 14 against Long Beach Poly.
25. (25) Harvard-Westlake (N. Hollywood), 34-1
Played an absolutely solid game while beating a very good St. Mary's (Berkeley, Calif.) team 58-54 for the CIF State Division IV title. The Panthers won their 30th straight behind the guard trio of Sydney Haydel with 20 points, 16 from Nicole Hung and 15 by Nicole Nesbit. It was the school’s first state girls basketball title.
Dropped out: No. 8 Bergtraum (New York, N.Y.).
