The finish line is in sight.
For nine high school basketball teams in the Bay Area News Group’s coverage area, a trip to this weekend’s state championships at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento is just one victory away.
Tuesday night, the teams — five boys, four girls — will play for a Northern California regional crown.
For some, such as the Archbishop Mitty girls, this is hardly new territory. The San Jose powerhouse will be appearing in its 24th NorCal title game when it plays host to Salesian in the Open Division final. Mitty is a 14-time regional champion, the past three in the top bracket (i.e. the Open).
For others, such as the Oakland (Division III) and Half Moon Bay (Division IV) boys, this is foreign terrain. Neither has appeared in a regional final.
Half Moon Bay, seeded 10th, will visit No. 5 seed Chico for the Division IV title.
Oakland will take one more shot at Oakland Athletic League rival Oakland Tech in a highly anticipated Division III final. In three previous meetings between the teams this season, Oakland Tech has won each of them by a combined seven points.
Oakland Section officials had pondered the idea of moving the game to the former home of the Warriors, the Oakland Arena. But instead, the section announced Monday morning that the game would be moved from Oakland Tech to a larger venue at Laney College, which can squeeze in maybe 2,500.
Higher-seeded teams play at home during the regionals. Oakland Tech is seeded third. Oakland is ninth.
The second-seeded Mitty girls thought they might play on the road in this round. But top-seeded Piedmont, which was undefeated and had an early-season win over Mitty, lost at home on Saturday to fifth-seeded Salesian 48-45.
So instead of a rematch against Piedmont, Mitty will see a familiar foe on its home court in the final.
Since the Open Division was added in 2013, Salesian has visited Mitty three times in regional games.
The visitors have won two of them, beating third-seeded Mitty 70-66 in the opening round in 2016 and top-seeded Mitty 44-41 in a 2019 semifinal, the final game of Haley Jones’ illustrious high school career.
In the semifinals in 2018, top-seeded Mitty crushed fifth-seeded Salesian 75-50.
“It’s a tough game down there,” Salesian coach Stephen Pezzola said after the win over Piedmont. “But we’ve gone down there with teams as the underdogs before, and come out with the victory.”
Mitty captured regional Open Division titles in 2017, 2020 and 2022 (There were no regionals in 2021 because of the pandemic).
Salesian won the regional Open championship in 2014, one of four NorCal titles the Richmond school has captured in six title game appearances.
Last season, Salesian won the Division I regional and state titles.
The Oakland Tech girls are 5-0 in regional games, including three since 2019. But they will have a tall challenge at top-seeded St. Mary’s-Stockton when the teams meet for the D-I title. St. Mary’s is a 10-time NorCal champion.
In the Division I boys final, ninth-seeded Granada will play sixth-seeded Salesian at Contra Costa College. When these teams met two weeks ago for third place in the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs, Salesian won 50-48.
Clearly, there is quite a bit more at stake Tuesday.
The Menlo School girls are 4-1 in NorCal finals, its most recent win coming in Division II four years ago.
Tuesday, the Knights will visit San Domenico for the Division IV championship.
Source: www.mercurynews.com