CCS basketball playoffs: Best of Tuesday’s quarterfinals

BOYS

Milpitas dominates once again

Maybe Milpitas should have been in the Open Division, or maybe not.

Let the debate continue.

But this much is indisputable: The Trojans are an awfully difficult team to beat, or to keep pace with, as eighth-seeded Sequoia discovered in the quarterfinals of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs on Tuesday night.

Top-seeded Milpitas, playing on its home court, built an 11-point lead at halftime, widened the advantage to 17 through three quarters and cruised to a 73-40 victory.

The Trojans (24-1) advanced to play host to fourth-seeded Palo Alto in the semifinals on Thursday. Sequoia finished 12-14.

Pranavram Krishnan scored 21 points, Dylan Nguyen added 19 points and Ziad Elkordy finished with 18 points to lead Milpitas. The Trojans also got 12 points from Jelani North.

Milpitas stretched its win streak to 15 since its only loss, 75-61 to Archie Williams on Dec. 23.

– Darren Sabedra

Los Gatos withstands Mountain View comeback

Los Gatos, the No. 2 seed in the Division I boys bracket, opened a 20-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter only to find itself having to fight off a fierce Mountain View rally in what ended up as a 57-52 Los Gatos victory.

“We felt we were on the cusp of putting them away,” Los Gatos coach Nick Ward said. “Then they found another gear and cut it to four. Beating a league opponent three times in a season and two times in a week is tough.”

Roshan Ramachandran was the motor in the Mountain View comeback, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. Noah Shahraz also had 15 while Diego Inocencio paced the Spartans with 16.

Zach Otoupal scored 15 for Los Gatos. Will Campbell had 13 and Dionysis Maroudas 12.

Mountain View (11-15) made eight 3-pointers and went 6 of 12 at the foul line. Los Gatos had four 3s but outscored Mountain View by nine points on the free-throw line, making 15 of 20 foul shots.

Los Gatos had a 27-22 lead at halftime before opening it up by outsourcing the visitors 18-7 in the third quarter.

Los Gatos (20-5) will host Carlmont in the semifinals on Thursday.

– Glenn Reeves

Carlmont routs North Salinas behind Rice’s big game

Junior forward Jordan Rice is no stranger to big scoring games. On Tuesday night, he delivered a performance that pushed Carlmont into the CCS Division I semifinals

Rice scored 31 points to lead Carlmont past Cinderella story North Salinas in a 85-49 win.

“He has great buy in in terms of just his role to our team,” Carlmont coach Suhail Mohammadi said. ” He’s been our go to guy when it comes to scoring the ball. He puts a lot of pressure on the defense, and with him out there, it makes the rest of the team better because they feel confident.”

Carlmont will travel to No. 2 Los Gatos in the bracket’s semifinals on Thursday.

The Scots will look to return to the Division I title game after falling to Palo Alto last year. In his first season as head coach, Mohammadi has guided Carlmont to a 15-10 record so far.

“We have to be prepared for Los Gatos,” Mohammadi said. “They’re a tough team. And our boys, we’ll get them ready tomorrow.”

– Nathan Canilao

Paly moves on, big challenge awaits

Palo Alto opened a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter after outscoring Evergreen Valley 20-12 in the third quarter, and then held on for a 62-50 victory.

“In the third quarter they started connecting from deep and their point guard, Rocco Smith, found his way to the basket,” Evergreen Valley coach Arjun Ashokkumar said. “We cut it to six in the fourth quarter but couldn’t make it a one-possession game,”

Smith led all scorers with 23 points. Ben Laris added 10 points for Palo Alto. Ananth Kothapalli scored 21 and Jakub Narkiewicz had 15 for Evergreen.

No. 4 seed Palo Alto (16-9) will play at top seed Milpitas on Thursday, a team the Vikings lost to twice during SCVAL De Anza Division play.

– Darren Sabedra

Willow Glen heats up in second half

Whatever was said in the Willow Glen locker room at halftime, the Rams should consider taking that to heart moving forward.

Tied 25-25 after two quarters in a Division II quarterfinal at home against eighth-seeded Gunn, Willow Glen erupted for 23 points in the third quarter and went on to win 67-52.

The top-seeded Rams will return to their home court Thursday to play fifth-seeded Burlingame, which eliminated one of Willow Glen’s league mates, Westmont, 61-52 on Tuesday.

Willow Glen had four players score in double figures, with Caiden Morefield’s 19 leading the way.

Brayden Gumabo added 15 points and Wyatt Ahlbrand and Josh Kaminski each finished with 10 as the Rams improved to 22-2 under first-year head coach Patrick Judge, a veteran of the CCS playoffs, having also coached at Leigh, Saratoga and Santa Teresa.

Gunn finished 17-10.

– Darren Sabedra

Burlingame upsets Westmont

Burlingame coach David Lopez challenged his team with a tough schedule to prepare them for a playoff run.

After taking their bumps and bruises early, the move is starting to pay off.

Behind 17 points from Jean-Luc Uharriet and 15 from Lucca Maher, Burlingame traveled to Westmont and defeated the Warriors 61-52.

“I think that beginning of the season, you know, we had a lot of sophomores and freshmen and juniors who are playing a lot of minutes for us, and I think we were just a little young to start,” Burlingame coach David Lopez said. “But I think that now, we’ve really bought into just playing clean, discipline basketball.”

The Panthers opened the season with games against some of the section’s top teams, including Palo Alto, Valley Christian and Serra before diving into the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division schedule.

– Nathan Canilao

Christopher dominates, advances to D2 semifinals

The Gilroy school had four players score in double figures as it advanced to the D2 semifinals with a 78-58 win over Aragon.

Senior Vidal Nzoyem led the way with 19 points.

“I liked the formula today. We had four guys in double figures, four guys getting involved,” Christopher coach Adam Sax said. “So we had all three areas covered, and that makes us pretty tough, and we can score in all three areas.”

Christopher will travel to St. Francis for its semifinal game.

– Nathan Canilao

GIRLS

Division I

Tava’s long-range shooting boosts M-A

Luisa Tava scored 27 points on nine 3-pointers as No. 1 seed Menlo-Atherton (19-5) got back in action with a decisive 70-48 victory. M-A coach Steve Yob said he wasn’t sure if the nine 3s were a school record, but was definitely the most he’d seen in his seven years as head coach.

M-A led 31-22 at halftime and extended the lead to 14 at 53-39 after three quarters. Ape Ulukivaiola scored 13 and freshman Bella Gormsen added 11. Gracie Bullard was a standout on defense.

Natalie Perkins led Cupertino (18-8) with 17 points, 15 in the second half. Jessica Shaffer scored 15.

The Bears, after losing to Los Gatos in the Division I final last year, are out to try to win its first CCS title since 2020.

– Glenn Reeves

Los Gatos pulls away in second half

Los Gatos had a 41-game SCVAL De Anza Division winning streak come to an end in a loss to Fremont early in the season. Motivation wasn’t in short supply Tuesday as the Wildcats pulled away from a 16-16 halftime tie to post a 44-37 victory.

“Our defense was really good today,” Los Gatos coach Sara Quilici-Giles said. “We tried to limit their post player (Ada Johnson) and make them shoot from outside.”

Fremont went on a 5-0 run to end the second quarter and a 6-0 run to end the third

Rita Zhou scored 12 points for No. 2 seed Los Gatos (19-6) and Jenna Webb had 10. Lola Cuevas and Hanna Behnami scored 9 apiece. Vivian Lee paced Fremont (13-13) with 14. Johnson scored 9.

“We’re finding our rhythm, peaking at the right time,” Quilici-Giles said. “Our seniors had fire in their eyes tonight.”

– Glenn Reeves

Homestead comes out on fire

Fueled by a number of steals which led to points in transition along with five 3-pointers, No. 3 seed Homestead scored 43 points in the first half and opened a 23-point lead at the break. After Carlmont sliced into the lead in the third quarter the Mustangs regrouped and pulled away for a 68-51 win.

Katie Tal led the way for Homestead (21-4) with 24 points. Leona Kovaci scored 19 and Hope Yin chipped in with 10.

London Greene scored 13 for Carlmont (14-12). Tia Helmy scored 10.

Homestead, the SCVAL El Camino Division champion, will play at Los Gatos on Thursday.

“It will be a challenge,” Homestead coach Megan Fong said. “We played a lot of De Anza teams and some of the top San Jose teams early in the season, but it’s been a while.

– Glenn Reeves

“We came out swinging”

Los Altos jumped out to a 20-12 lead after one quarter and was up 32-20 at halftime on the way to a 56-37 victory over Salinas.

“We really tried to push,” Los Altos coach Brittany Taylor said. “We scored a lot in transition after getting stops.”

Ella McFarlane led the Eagles with 21 points. A pair of freshmen, point guard Taylor Ware and 6-footer Isha Peruri scored 12 points apiece.

Alice Uchida scored 11 and Erin Uchida had 9 for Salinas.

No. 4 seed Los Altos (20-4) will travel to play at No. 1 Menlo-Atherton on Thursday.

“I think we match up pretty well with them,” Taylor said. “I like our momentum going into that game.”

– Glenn Reeves