C.K. McClatchy women’s basketball team has had a tremendous season with an ending record of 28 wins to 5 losses. McClatchy went into the CIF States playoff with a record of 26-4 earning them at seat in the Division I bracket, seeded number 8. With the immense amount of talent on the team, a respectable ranking, and a supportive community surrounding the school, it leaves C.K.M. hopeful to bring the State Championship home next year.
McClatchy faced off San Ramon Valley of Danville on Tuesday, February 26th, kicking off the start of the playoffs. San Ramon Valley, seeded 9, is only one seed behind the Lions, many predicting it would be a close game.
The home court was packed with students, parents, and teachers, offered a sea of red. The game began with McClatchy having a lead early in the quarter before San Ramon caught up towards the end. San Ramon ended the first quarter with a one point lead 18-19. The start of 2nd quarter, McClatchy girls began to dominate on the court with three point shots that became never ending. C.K.M. earned a total of 29 points in the 2nd quarter compared to San Ramon’s 9 points ending with a final score of 47-28 by half time.
Start of the second half, McClatchy continued the grind with another successful quarter. Earning a total of 19 point adding to their 3rd quarter score of 66-36, San Ramon only earning 8 points 3rd quarter.
After an eventful two quarters, C.K.M. seem to release of the tight grip they had on San Ramon. Previous quarters, the points seemed endless but San Ramon was then able to earn some points back. San Ramon came up to 16 points to C.K.M.’s 13 points.
McClatchy won the first game of the playoffs with a total score of 79-52 against San Ramon Valley of Danville. McClatchy faced off their rivals Sacramento High Thursday, February 28th, their next game in the State Playoffs.
Sacramento High School, a neighbor and rival of McClatchy was seeded number one after a successful win in the Sac-Joaquin division 2 playoffs. Nia Lowery (‘19) started the game off with the first 2 point field goal. The game continued to be quick paced the whole quarter ending with Sac High being in a 3 point lead with a score of 11-14.
The two teams continued to bounce back and forth on the scoreboard with both teams being equally persistent. The 2nd quarter ended with Sac High still being in the lead by 5 points and ending the quarter with a score of 21-26.
The 3rd quarter was painfully slow for McClatchy with a total of 5 points being able to be scored by the team. Sac High quickly took a lead with a score of 26-39 and time was dwindling. The Lions had eight minutes to come back from a 13 point defeat.
In the 4th quarter McClatchy seemed to have their defense locked down as they began their comeback. The game became climatic as McClatchy came back quickly and took a lead of 44-43 after two free throws. Sacramento then came back with 2 free throw points leading the game by one point again. With only a few minutes on the clock, the whole gym began to bite their fingers as the game was too close to decide who will take it all. Sac High’s gym filled with hundreds of people all roaring for their team, McClatchy’s fans could be heard echoing throughout when everybody stood up for a 2 point field goal putting McClatchy at a one point lead.
As everybody is in high energy, the Lions made a 3 point field goal putting the team in a 4 point lead with less than a minute left. With 12 seconds left on the clock, McClatchy was fouled and given a 2 point free throw opportunity. The clock stopped and 2 free throw points were earned, the game continued with Sacramento’s possession of the ball. McClatchy held possession of the ball when the shot clock rang, McClatchy had just defeated the number one seed in the playoffs. The final score, 51-45 had proved McClatchy’s hard work had paid off.
The next game took place Saturday, March 2nd against Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland, seeded 4th. With the game being all the way in Oakland, the team still had a big supportive crowd down at Bishop O’Dowd.
The team showed great sportsmanship and held a good fight against the Dragons. The Lions lost against O’Dowd 38-75. Both teams displayed outstanding game strategies and McClatchy fought hard throughout the entire game. Though, the unfairness in the reffing could be pointed out by some spectators. Many of those who witnessed claimed there were many fouls by Bishop O’Dowd that did not get called. Not to undermine their success, they were a tremendously good team the Lions faced off. Bishop O’Dowd went off to play against Bear Creek, and went all the way to the finals before losing to Rosary Academy at the Golden One Center.
This marks the end of a truly successful season and journey that the Lady Lions experienced. Despite not winning the State Championship, the girls were highly successful, ranking 20th in California and a national rank of 105th. Their success should be celebrated by our community.