SAN JOSE — This one was decided early.
Menlo-Atherton scored the first 12 points of the game and was never seriously threatened Thursday in a 56-37 victory over host Evergreen Valley in a Central Coast Section Division I girls basketball semifinal.
M-A, the No. 3 seed, moves on to play top seed Los Gatos on Saturday for the CCS D-I championship at Mission College at 3 p.m.
“That was our goal from the start of the season,” said point guard Eve Amram, who scored 13 points against Evergreen Valley. “Now we’re one game away.”
Thursday’s semifinal was a game of runs with M-A’s runs longer and more frequent.
After that initial 12-0 run to begin the game, Evergreen scored the next eight points only to see M-A reel off 10 in a row to make it 22-8.
Trailing 27-14 at halftime, the Cougars came out and scored the first six points of the third quarter to make it 27-20. But that was as close as they would get. The Bears proceeded to put the game away, outscoring the home team 17-3 to go up 44-23.
M-A’s 1-3-1 zone defense was a decisive factor, preventing good looks at the basket and making penetration difficult.
“We wanted them taking outside shots,” M-A coach Steve Yob said. “They’re a really quick team, really fast, they can get to the basket. We wanted to keep them out of the paint, make them shoot from outside and our girls did a really great job on defense.”
The 1-3-1 has become M-A’s base defense.
“It is now,” Yob said. “We started off the year in man, pressing, and it just didn’t fit our team. This is the first year we’ve gone to the 1-3-1 and it’s been a game changer. Our roster is really long and tall and the 1-3-1 has been big for us.”
Amram and Avary Sheldon scored 13 apiece to share team high-point honors. Luisa Tava came off the bench to score 11, all in the second quarter.
Aastha Bhagat scored a game-high 16 for No. 2 seed Evergreen Valley (19-7), but only three other players scored.
“We struggled with their length, struggled making bad decisions,” Evergreen coach Drew Fenstermaker said. “Didn’t take care of the ball. Defense was one step slow on rotations.”
The two divisional finalists automatically advance to the Northern California playoffs. Fenstermaker said he still thought his team would also advance as an at-large selection.
“Live to see another day,” he said. “Season’s still alive. I hope we don’t get snubbed.”
M-A’s last appearance in a CCS championship game was in 2020, Yob’s first season as head coach, when the Bears beat Palo Alto in the Division I final, 34-32.
“We know Los Gatos is a very good team, they could be an Open team,” Yob said. “We’ve got a very big challenge coming up and we’re excited to take it on. We’ll enjoy this tonight, study some Los Gatos film and be ready to go.”