Clovis West gets past St. Mary’s to reach CIF Open Division regional championship
The Clovis West girls basketball team took care of business in its CIF Northern California Open Division regional semifinals.
The second-seeded Golden Eagles defeated No. 3 St. Mary’s-Stockton 69-57 on Saturday afternoon.
The win sends Clovis West to the regional championship against top-seed Archbishop Mitty-San Jose, which defeated No. 5 Folsom 82-71.
It’s a rematch of last season’s regional semifinal where the Golden Eagles lost 63-43.
“They’re No. 1 in the country for a reason,” Clovis West coach Craig Campbell said. “Coach (Sue) Phillips does a tremendous job with them. She has a McDonald’s All-American and a future McDonald’s All-American.”
Campbell is talking about Morgan Cheli, who will play at UConn next season, and sophomore McKenna Woliczko.
The Golden Eagles face another tough task if they want to upset Mitty and return to the state championships for the first time since 2017. In that year, Clovis West defeated Mitty in the state title game.
The Golden Eagles have The Bee’s Player of the Year Athena Tomlinson, who will play at Boston College next season.
Tomlinson finished with 28 points to lead the way for Clovis West. Keegan Medeiros had 13 points.
Clovis West is coming off a Central Section championship over St. Joseph last weekend.
Campbell is seeing “a lot of grit and toughness” from his players especially after going up 15 points against St. Mary’s.
“Don’t assume it’s over now and kind of coast because that’s when it flips and the bottom falls out,” he said. “The resilience of our kids, even through some mistakes and making some tough defensive plays, some loose balls, big shots. Just a terrific job. Just a lot of maturity going on tonight.”
