Girls basketball: Branson claims NCS gold with emotional win

The Branson School girls basketball team staked its fortunes on its perimeter shooting Friday night and struck championship gold.

The No. 2 Bulls hit eight 3-pointers in an emotional 44-36 victory over top-seeded Rancho Cotate in the North Coast Section Division IV championship game at Montgomery High.

Sophomore Kate Spaulding led Branson with 20 points, including three 3-pointers, to help send the Bulls (20-12) to the CIF Northern California Regionals next week for the first time since the 2022-23 season, when Branson lost in the D-III finals to Colfax.

“We’re really trying to follow in their footsteps (of the 2022 State championship team) and just keep it strong,” said Spaulding, who scored a team-high 20 points. “Our goal is to win State, and I think we can do that if we continue to play the way we have been, just keeping it going and staying strong.”

Ava Gordon had 10 points and five rebounds for the Bulls, while Alyssa Huang had nine points on three 3-pointers in the first half to kickstart the Bulls offense. Juliette Caldwell-Lewis finished with five points and seven rebounds.

“It’s taken a lot of practices to get here,” first-year Branson head coach Kayden Korst said. “The girls love the games because the practices are so hard. They have come together, they play for each other, they want to win.”

Isabelle Ellison scored a team-best 18 points for the Cougars (16-13), who are making their first NorCal appearance in program history.

“We’re still playing, so that’s a silver lining,” Rancho Cotate head coach Paulline Ceja said. “We’ve got some work to do, but these girls don’t quit.”

Spaulding sparked her Branson teammates when they needed it most late in the game. The Bulls had seen their 15-point halftime lead dwindle to five points near the end of the third quarter when Spaulding sank a layup with 12 seconds left.

“It’s been a really fun experience,” Spaulding said. “It’s going to be a tough week, but we’re really excited to keep playing, to just keep continuing our season.”

Branson picked up some momentum heading into the fourth quarter, and Spaulding hit a 3-pointer to push the resurgent Bulls’ lead back to 11 points midway through the fourth quarter. Branson’s gritty defense held off the Cougars and a 3-pointer from Gordon with less than 2 minutes to play put the bow on the Bulls’ win.

Huang hit a pair of shots from deep in the wings early in the game, and the Bulls were off and running. But just as suddenly, the ride stopped as neither team could score for the first 5 minutes of the second quarter before Huang hit another 3-pointer for a 21-10 Bulls lead to spark another run.

The energy in the gym fell silent with 16 seconds left in the first half when Sierra Wilmes collided with Gordon as Wilmes soared to the basket and she landed hard on the court, where she remained for several minutes. Wilmes was taken to the hospital. There was no immediate update on her condition.

“Our thoughts are with Wilmes,” Spaulding said. “We had her in our minds, but we had to take a step away from it and focus on our game and not let it shake us up.”

The Cougars, playing for their injured teammate, played with renewed intensity in the third quarter. Rancho Cotate turned up the defensive pressure on the Bulls. Ellison, battling on the boards, also hit a pair of 3-pointers during a 12-0 run that suddenly turned the game into a thriller.

“Melissa Cuevas is our defensive anchor,” Ceja said. “Boy, did she play her butt off and she gave everything she had. She gave (Spaulding) a problem and kind of wore her out. And everyone else picked up on the energy and started playing like I’ve never seen.”

Said Spaulding, “It’s all about momentum, and they got ahold of it then. Our focus was on staying with our fundamentals, taking it slow and not rushing.”

The gold medal hanging around senior Barbara Hernandez’ neck fulfills a promise made when she was a freshman on the junior varsity squad.

“The dynamic of the group, like we all have one mindset, which is to win, to do whatever it takes to win,” Hernandez said. “Our coaches imparted that to us on Day 1, like you have to be the last one driving the ball, and that’s the mentality we have going into every game. We pick each other up, we keep our heads up.”

Korst knows she asks a lot of her players, “maybe too much,” she admits, but the Bulls wouldn’t want it any other way.

“For sure (Korst) is tough, but she gives us confidence. No other coach has given me that type of confidence,” Hernandez said. “I go to make the layup, I don’t have to wait for somebody else to make that layup. She instills that confidence in all our players, which allows us to play well cohesively.”