Another great postseason run came to an end for the St. Bernard’s girls on Thursday night.
The Crusaders traveled to play Menlo-Atherton in the NorCal Division-3 quarterfinals and fell 56-43.
But they didn’t go down without a fight.
Playing a school with almost 2200 students, the Little 4 champs trailed by as many as 23 in the third quarter, but would battle back to make a game of it late.
They cut the deficit to as few as eight in the fourth quarter but ultimately were unable to get any closer.
“The ladies never showed any quit,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said. “We just couldn’t overcome their height and great length defensively.”
The season-ending loss comes just two days after the bracket’s No. 14 seeds knocked off No. 3 Alisal 51-48 on the road in their NorCal opener.
Several of the SB players played well in Thursday’s loss, including team captain CJ Figas.
The junior scored a team-high 17 points, while teammate and fellow junior Samantha Sundberg also impressed and finished with 15 points.
Carli Baum added nine points in the loss and Paula Bullock chipped in two points.
The Crusaders did not allow the Central Coast Section Division-1 champs intimidate them.
“I was super proud of how physical we played and how well we rebounded against a tall, physical and super talented Division-1 team,” Tomlin said.
File photo
“Figas, Sundberg and Baum played outstanding on offense again, and Alyssa Boham had a great game on defense and rebounding.”
The loss ends the high school careers for both of the team’s seniors, Boham and Kayla Maples.
But the two seniors left their mark on the program and were a part of the school’s history-making state championship team of 2024, the first-ever state champions in the sport for the H-DNL.
“We will miss our two seniors,” Tomlin said. “They both had great senior years and terrific four-year careers.
“They were both on our 2024 state championship team, they helped lead our varsity program to four straight 20-win seasons and 103 total victories the last four years.”
The SB girls closed out the season 23-9.
Categories: Basketball, St. Bernard's
Be very proud girls for you all had a great basketball season with Coach Tomlin. You played hard and never gave up until the final buzzer. Long live the Crusader’s!
Very proud of this program. When looking at the brackets for our local schools, it appears that most were forced to play in brackets well out of their school size.
Why is this? It seems more appropriate to allow a school to compete against like sized programs so they have a fair and balanced chance to move on and perhaps attain a state title. When brackets are assigned it feels like the success these teams have gained are punished by playing huge schools instead of rewarded for their hard work.