The St. Bernard Crusaders ended Cloverdale’s season with a 59-34 victory over the Eagles on Saturday night in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division V girls basketball playoffs in Eureka.
St. Bernard (18-8) dominated Cloverdale (19-11) for the second time this season behind 23 points from senior point guard Makenna Schoenhofer.
“I think they have a couple of girls who are going Division I,” Cloverdale assistant coach Maribeth Kelly said. “They have some very good players.”
St. Bernard beat Cloverdale 74-43 in the Potter Valley Tournament championship game on Dec. 10 and the Crusaders took early control in this one too, jumping out to a 22-4 lead after one quarter.
“They’re very balanced and move the ball very well,” Kelly said. “They do a good job finding the open player on the court.”
The Eagles played a competitive final three quarters against the Crusaders, who left their starters on the floor until the final three minutes of the game. “We got better as the game went on,” Kelly said. “They didn’t give up.”
Tehya Bird’s 16 points powered Cloverdale’s offense.
Cloverdale, the No. 10 seed in the original 16-team Division V field, upset No. 7 seed Marin Academy 75-63 in opening-round action Feb. 22 in San Rafael. The Eagles played one of their better games of the season on the offensive end as four players scored in double figures led by Camryn Figueroa’s 24 points and Kayli Persons’ 21. “The offense was clicking,” Kelly said.
Cloverdale led 41-27 at the half but struggled a bit in the third quarter as Marin Academy closed to 52-46. A 23-point fourth quarter put the Eagles in the win column.
“Marin Academy is pretty young,” Kelly said. “I don’t think they were used to the fast pace of the game.”
Bird had 14 points in the win and Paloma Santos added 10 more.
The young Eagles lose only one starter, Santos, to graduation although the senior’s presence will be keenly missed, according to Kelly. “I don’t know if we can match the intensity she brings on defense,” Kelly said.
Looking back at the 2016-17 season, Kelly said she and head coach Rick Berry were satisfied “for the most part” with what the Eagles achieved. “As a young team sometimes you take two steps forward and then a step back and that step back can be frustrating, but when they lost they came back and worked real hard to get better.”
A strong junior varsity squad and one of the better eighth-grade teams in the area bodes well for the continued success of the girls program at Cloverdale, according to Kelly, who had one final compliment to bestow on the 2016-17 team. “One of the nicest groups of players Rick and I have ever worked with,” Kelly said.
St. Bernard hosted No. 3 seed International of San Francisco while No. 4 Urban host No. 8 Clear Lake in semifinal-round games on March 1. Winners advance to the Division V final either March 3 or March 4.
