SACRAMENTO – Celeste Alvarez isn’t known as a 3-point shooter, but when she was left open with 1:34 left in the fourth quarter, the sophomore forward didn’t hesitate to let the long-ball fly from the deep corner.
Long after the ball swished through the net, the Carondelet post held her follow through in a dramatic final flourish as the Concord school padded its lead to four.
Did she know it was going in the very moment it left her hand?
“Yeah, honestly I did,” said Alvarez, who credited her accurate shot to the countless shooting drills the Cougars do during practice.
Her long range bomb was just one of a series of dramatic moments in the fourth quarter of Carondelet’s 51-48 victory over Sage Hill-Newport Beach, the East Bay school’s first state championship victory since capturing a D-II crown 2004.
“First off, there was never a doubt,” Carondelet coach Kelly Sopak sarcastically quipped, before adding. “That was just a great game.”
After Alvarez made it 47-43, Sage Hill punched back.
Amalia Holguin, the last of the Kobe Bryant-trained “Mamba Five,” splashed an off-the-dribble three to cut the deficit back to one.
Then she found teammate Addison Uphoff for a layup with a minute to go to give Sage Hill a 48-47 lead, showing the ruthless mentality that made her mentor great.
“He always wanted us to look in the mirror every day,” said Holquin, who scored a game-high 21 points. “I’m going to go home and probably watch some film on this to see how we can get better for next year. But he was never sulking in the past. We’re always looking toward the future.”
Fifteen seconds later, junior forward Layla Dixon stepped up to the line and made a pair of free throws to give Carondelet the lead.
In a game where every point was magnified, Carondelet made 8 of 11 free throws while Sage Hill hit only 4 of 14.
Following two straight misses by Sage Hill, Carondelet’s defensive specialist Oliva Smith was fouled with 13 seconds remaining.
Facing a raucous crowd, the senior made both.
“It was just, like, trust what I’ve worked on,” Smith said. “We do so much free throw shooting in practice, so it was like, ‘Let it just flow in.’”
Sage Hill came up empty on its final possession, Layla Dixon snatched the rebound and dribbled out the clock, and the celebrations began for Sopak and the team.
Sopak was making his first appearance in Sacramento since he coached Miramonte in 2016, when Sabrina Ionescu headlined a then-unbeaten Matadors team that came up short against Chaminade.
Almost a decade later, the longtime East Bay coach was finally a state champion.
“I feel a lot of relief, and it feels great,” Sopak said.
Alvarez led Carondelet with 11 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks. Sophia Ross scored eight and five other Carondelet players scored at least four points in what was a team effort on both sides of the floor.
It was a battle from the start.
Carondelet jumped out to a 24-18 first half thanks in large part to a second quarter in which the Cougars allowed just six points overall and did not surrender a point in the final four minutes.
After Sage Hill’s Kamdyn Klamberg had cut the deficit to just 19-18, Carondelet ended the half strong.
Smith connected on one of her signature short midrange jumpers off the dribble, and after almost three minutes of scoreless basketball, Ross buried a 3-pointer in the corner to send the Cougars into the locker room up by two possessions.
While her scoring was appreciated, it was her willingness to help defend Holquin in Carondelet’s scheme that made the biggest impact.
“We looked at her shot chart, and she wasn’t shooting as much on the left side,” Ross said. “So we were willing to let her go left, even if she made it or not.”
It was the kind of barnburner that Carondelet’s run through the North Coast Section and NorCal had prepared the team for.
After coming within a last-second shot by Bishop O’Dowd last season from making it to Sacramento, Carondelet (29-6) broke through and defeating St. Mary’s-Stockton in a tight one on Tuesday.
“If you look back at our games in the playoffs leading up to this, we gave up some runs, and it seemed like every time we gave up a big shot, that we were able to come back in transition and get an open three,” Sopak said.
That play-style may have given Sopak a few more gray hairs, but their unselfish play also added a second state title to the Concord school’s trophy case.
“We only scored two baskets without it being assisted, and that’s just a real tribute to them buying into our culture, our program, our system, and it won us a state championship,” Sopak said.
