Archbishop Mitty’s Haley Jones (30) takes a 3-point shot against Salesian’s Angel Jackson (15) in the fourth quarter for their NorCal Open Division semifinal game at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, March 13, 2018.
Vytas Mazeika, mercurynews.com, March 3, 2019
The Haley Jones era at Archbishop Mitty came to an abrupt end Saturday night as her story shifts to Stanford for the next four years.
The consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation failed to add an elusive California Interscholastic Federation Open Division girls basketball state title to her extensive résumé after No. 4 Salesian pulled off a 44-41 road upset over the top-seeded Monarchs in the Northern California semifinals.
“I don’t think that tarnishes or lessens all that she’s accomplished,” said Mitty coach Sue Phillips, whose team lost in the NorCal finals a year ago and the state championship game in 2017. “She is amazing.”
Salesian (25-8) fell on the same stage, same court by a 75-50 margin in last year’s NorCal playoffs. The Pride also came up on the wrong end of a 66-45 contest on Jan. 12 against Mitty, which is ranked No. 2 in the country by MaxPreps.
But the road team shocked the home crowd behind a double-double from USC-bound center Angel Jackson — 10 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks, three steals — and a 23-point outburst from Hawaii-bound small forward MaKayla Edwards.
“I had much faith in my team that we were going to stomp Mitty in their own home,” said Edwards, who went 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.
“I was feeling it,” she added. “It was in my soul that I wanted to win and didn’t want to go home, yet.”
“Everybody was doubting us, but we just knew that we had to play our game,” Jackson said. “We’re not going to rely on nobody else to help cheer us up. We just had to play as a team.”
That was certainly the message from Salesian coach Stephen Pezzola, who drew up a game plan to stifle Mitty (25-3), which trailed 20-15 at the half after an eight-day layoff following its fourth consecutive Central Coast Section Open Division title.
“I just told the girls, ‘We have to beat them as a team tonight,’ ” Pezzola said. “I thought that was best team game we’ve played in the whole year, for sure. We changed up some defense after we watched film, so we did something a little bit different and I think that it gave the girls the excitement that we had something together.”
The Monarchs, who came in averaging 74.6 points per game, were held to a season-low scoring output in their first loss since Dec. 20, thereby snapping a 22-game win streak.
Mitty didn’t help its own cause by going 5 of 16 from the line.
“Free throw situation was very uncharacteristic and that’s a really tough pill to swallow,” Phillips said.
No one besides Jones cracked double figures for the Monarchs, who briefly pulled ahead 31-30 with eight minutes left, though the Pride never crumbled in a hostile environment.
“It got very intense, but we just kept our composure, slowed it down and played at our pace,” Jackson said.
“We just didn’t give up,” Edwards said. “We just kept fighting as a team.”
In a way, this was a case of déjà vu.
Jackson, at 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and Edwards both saw action as freshmen back in 2016, when Salesian recorded a 70-66 upset at Mitty in the NorCal quarterfinals.
It’s one of the reasons the Pride never lost faith.
“We’re kind of used to it,” Pezzola said. “I mean, we came down here and beat them when they were fifth-ranked in the country and no one thought we would win. Minyon Moore puts 40 on them and Angel Jackson catches their last shot, so kind of poetic justice here tonight.”
He added: “And we lost to them badly in January, but we were finding our way and we had such a tough schedule that we’re not really afraid of anybody. The girls believe in themselves, believe in the coaches, believe in the system. I’m so proud of them.”
In the end, after an inbound with 11.6 seconds left, Jones never touched the ball again as the Monarchs, in desperation mode and out of timeouts, heaved an air ball from 30 feet out as time expired.
The 6-foot-1 senior, one of five finalists for the Naismith high school girls player of the year award, concluded her last game in a Mitty uniform with 19 points, 12 rebounds, four steals and two rebounds.
“I mean, Mitty women’s basketball is truly a sisterhood,” Jones said. “I think that last year and this year, especially, we were truly sisters. We talked to each other every day, we do everything together. I’m going to miss seeing them every day in practice. Just not being around them every day and this culture, it’s going to be a change. But it’s a change that was going to come anyways, it just came sooner than we hoped.”
“I’m going to miss the five seniors,” Phillips said. “They’re a phenomenal group of young women who represented the program with the utmost character and talent. We’ve won way more than our share and while the outcome is extremely disappointing, I wouldn’t trade locker rooms.”
Salesian next plays No. 3 Pinewood (26-3) in a rubber match at a site to be determined on Tuesday for a spot in next week’s state final at Golden1Center in Sacramento.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Jackson said.
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