Photograph by Darren Phillips
Fremont's Ben Skinner (left) and Warren Rick battle for the basketball in last week's CCS playoff game against Leland. The Firebirds lost 52-51 in overtime.
By DICK SPARRER
Monta Vista and Homestead were rivals during the regular season when they battled for the girls' basketball championship in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Now they're each battling for Central Coast Section championships, but they are rivals no longer.
Monta Vista, the champion of the De Anza Division, is going for the crown in the CCS Division I playoffs, and Homestead, the only team to have beaten the Matadors this winter, is gunning for a title in the CCS Division II tournament.
The Matadors will take their 25-1 season record up against Mitty in the CCS championship game on March 7, 6:30 p.m., at the San Jose State University Event Center.
Only five teams entered the CCS Division I playoffs, and now only two remain.
Live Oak opened the playoffs with a win over Independence, but Monta Vista elimated the Acorns from the postseason with a 43-37 victory last weekend.
Mitty beat Sacred Heart Cathedral the same night to earn a place in the finals. The Monarchs, champs in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, are 23-4 for the year heading into the title game.
Both Monta Vista and Mitty have already qualified for the Northern California tournament, and all that's left to be decided is who will wear the CCS crown.
The Matadors had their hands full in the semifinals against Live Oak, but held on for the six-point victory.
Monta Vista jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the first period, but the Acorns trimmed the lead to one at intermission, 18-17, by outscoring the Mats 10-6 in the second quarter.
Monta Vista topped Live Oak 13-9 in the third to pull in front by five, then edged the Acorns 12-11 in the fourth to claim the victory.
Three Matadors shared game-high honors with 10 points each in the win. Kim Stocklmeir, Kristin Franklin and Kim Seid popped 10 points each for the Mats, Stocklmeir's coming on five field goals.
Annie Garrison supported with eight points for the winners, Tyann Taylor added four and Anna Abatzoglou hit one.
The loss left the Acorns 21-5 for the year.
Homestead, meanwhile, was whipping Gilroy 54-33 in its first game of the postseason.
The Mustangs, seeded No. 1 in Division II, drew a first-round bye, then opened the tourney against Gilroy, a first-round winner over Santa Clara.
Homestead had to play its CCS opener without the services of talented senior guard Brie Ahern, sidelined with a knee injury. But seniors Hilary Parker, Yvonne Chen and Yumi Minn rose to the occasion.
Parker poured in 19 points to lead all Homestead scorers in the win. Chen pitched in five field goals, one from three-point range, to finish with 11 points and Minn added 10 points, including a three.
Michelle Wald supported with six points for the Mustangs, Erin Morikawa had five and Kelly Hadden and Marie Levey hit one each. Morikawa popped a three-pointer.
The Mustangs, 23-3 for the year, jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first period and never looked back on the way to the victory.
Homestead led 24-10 at the half, and after Gilroy cut the lead by two in the third, the Mustangs put the game away by blitzing the visitors 14-6 in the fourth.
Homestead advances to the CCS Division II semifinals this week against North Salinas (23-5) on March 5, 8 p.m., at Mt. Pleasant. The winner of that game moves on to the CCS championship game on March 8, 6 p.m., at the SJSU Event Center.
Carlmont (21-4) plays St. Francis (24-4) on March 5, 6 p.m., at Mt. Pleasant in the other Division II semifinal game.
Fremont falls
The Homestead and Monta Vista girls may still be chasing titles, but the Fremont boys are headed off to their spring sports after the Firebirds dropped a 52-51 heartbreaker to Leland in the first-round of the CCS Division II playoffs.
Fremont, the champion in the El Camino Division this winter, lost in overtime to Leland to face elimination from the postseason tournament.
It was close from wire to wire, but Leland ended up outscoring Fremont 5-4 in the overtime period to pull out the one-point victory.
The Firebirds led by a point, 10-9, after a period, and held that lead at the half after matching Leland's 11 second-quarter points. Fremont added to its lead by three more points in the third, outscoring the Chargers 17-14, but Leland made up the four-point difference in the final quarter, topping Fremont 13-9.
That left the clubs locked in a 47-47 tie at the end of regulation, and Leland took the edge in the extra period to win it and advance to the next round of the tournament, only to lose 81-65 to St. Francis.
Senior Jabbar Burton helped keep the Firebirds in the game against Leland. The 6-foot forward had four three-pointers among his six field goals to finish the night with a team-high 16 points.
Junior guard Darren Lang joined Burton in twin figures with 10 points. Senior center Rich Lockmanese and junior forward Tully Banta-Cain supported with seven points apiece for the 'Birds, Melvin Rabena added six and Ben Skinner hit five, including a three-pointer.
The loss ended the Fremont season, but Miguel Castillo's crew finished with a solid 19-8 record, and an optimistic look at the coming year since only three players will be lost to graduation--Burton, Lockmanese and Danny Douglas.
Top underclassmen Lang, Banta-Cain, Rabena, Skinner, Warren Rick and Reynold Carlos head up Fremont's hopes for a bright basketball future.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.