Archbishop Mitty players celebrate after winning in the CIF NorCal Open Division girls basketball game between Archbishop Mitty and Clovis-West at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., on March 4, 2023. (Thien-An Truong for Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE — A big team that can play small makes for a collection of attributes that spells trouble for opponents.
The Archbishop Mitty girls basketball team started five 6-footers Saturday against Clovis West. But the Monarchs didn’t play like a big team, simply relying on their size to rule over the halfcourt and dominate the inside. Instead, they pressed fullcourt like a small team: hungry, full of energy and intent on gaining an advantage by creating turnovers.
The result was a 63-43 victory over a Clovis West team that went into the game 30-1, with its one loss by a single point.
No. 2 seed Mitty (27-2) advanced to the Northern California Open Division championship game Tuesday against Salesian, a 48-45 upset winner over No. 1 seed Piedmont.
And by virtue of Piedmont having lost, the Monarchs get to host that game with the victor advancing to the state final next Saturday in Sacramento.
Morgan Cheli, Mitty’s leading scorer last season as a sophomore, missed most of this season with a foot injury. Once she became available, coach Sue Phillips inserted the 6-2 Cheli at point guard. On other teams, she’d probably be a center. With Mitty, she’s a one instead of a five.
“We have a really unique group,” Cheli said. “We definitely use our length to our advantage.”
She only scored six points against Clovis West, but that hardly mattered.
“She was a huge facilitator for us,” Phillips said. “She got on the glass and with her court vision has the ability to make all kinds of passes.”
Freshman McKenna Woliczko led the Monarchs with 14 points and nine rebounds. She got the team off to a flying start with six points at the game’s outset as Mitty jumped out to an 8-0 lead.
And then she put in two offensive rebound baskets at the start of the second quarter. Maya Hernandez added 11 points and seven rebounds.
Mitty led by eight at halftime and put the game away with an 18-7 third quarter. The Monarchs outrebounded the visitors 35-18 and held Clovis West to six points below its previous lowest point total on the season.
“They’re so hard to play here, so hard to play in general,” Clovis West coach Craig Campbell said. “Their length and size really disrupted us. You can’t just run them because they’re athletes as well as being big. They killed us on the glass. They create havoc, they’re disciplined and very well-coached.”
Getting beat by 20 points is something that doesn’t happen often for Clovis West, which is a combined 298-41 over the last 11 seasons under Campbell.
Mitty, which extended its winning streak to 20, has scored nearly twice as many points as its opponents this season, 2,095 to 1,076. That kind of domination makes one wonder where this team ranks in Mitty history.
“After 30 years of coaching, things sort of blend together for me,” Phillips said. “I will say that this is an incredible group. We can win games in different ways.”
