Pinewood takes down national No. 1 again, beats Mitty in 3OT

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It took three overtimes, their typical strong shooting from deep, a sturdy defensive effort, a temporary blackout and a healthy amount of luck.

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But on Saturday night in the Northern California Open Division finals, Pinewood School (Los Altos Hills) officially sealed its fate as one of the greatest giant-slayers in high school basketball history by knocking off their second consensus No. 1-team in the nation in three years.

And the fact that, this time, the team they toppled is Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) — the Goliath to their David — makes it oh so sweeter.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler said with a smile.

The Panthers came back from a 16-point deficit to force overtime, then battled through two 4-minute draws before finally clamping down in the third overtime to defeat the Monarchs 78=67 and give themselves a chance to be crowned California Open Champions next weekend.

In doing so, they finally have defeated Mitty for the first time in Scheppler’s career and after three consecutive defeats in the Central Coast Section Open finals.

“[Beating] this team is the biggest win because they are so disciplined and they are in such great condition and they are so well coached,” Scheppler said. “But sometimes they lose, and I couldn’t be prouder of these guys [for winning].”

All of Pinewood’s upperclassmen — including 2019 Stanford commit Hannah Jump — were on the team that toppled 2016’s consensus No. 1 team, St. Mary’s of Stockton, in the NorCal Open semifinals. This season, the Panthers went back to Stockton this past Tuesday and beat then-No. 3 St. Mary’s again, 59-56, to set up the showdown with 2018’s No. 1 team in Mitty, a rematch at the same place (Leavey Center at Santa Clara University) as the CCS Open Finals two weeks prior.

On this night, the game started about as well as could have been imagined for Pinewood defensively, with the Monarchs only able to grab three offensive rebounds and limiting Mitty’s transition offense. But the Panthers struggled from the field in the first half, only making 7-of-26 shots, and trailed 27-19 at half.

Mitty came out to a blazing start after halftime and the Monarchs pushed the lead as high as 16 in the middle of the third quarter, but superstar junior Haley Jones picked up her third and fourth foul in rapid succession and had to exit the game with 3:35 left in the quarter.

Pinewood slowly chipped away with her off the floor and cut the deficit back down to eight by the end of the third. But the Panthers actually did the biggest damage in the fourth with Jones back on the floor, chopping away with good defense and a few timely shots from deep as Mitty’s offense struggled to get quality looks.

With 1:31 left in regulation and the Monarchs up 50-48, Jones battled Pinewood junior Klara Astrom for a rebound underneath the basket and got called for going over Astrom’s back, ending her night prematurely with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Mitty head coach Sue Phillips felt that had massive impact on the game.

“When you look at some of the circumstances tonight, Haley only gets to play 24 minutes, and she’s a kid that’s scored over 20 points a game in the past,” Phillips said. “I’m not making excuses, but that changes our floor dynamic, because then they have to really focus on her with two or three people.”

Scheppler agreed, but countered, “That’s basketball. You have to play with foul trouble, you have to absorb that. It happens that people get in foul trouble. When we played them before, we got screwed because we had to have [Astrom] sit on the bench for seven minutes of the second quarter, when they made their run. You’ve got injuries. Shit happens. It’s basketball, it’s sports.”

Right as play was set to resume, the lights above the court went out, causing a brief delay. But it didn’t phase Pinewood junior Kaitlyn Leung, who drove and made a layup to tie the game and give the Panthers a chance to win it at the end of regulation, but they missed a decent look, leading to overtime.

In the first overtime, Leung stepped up again and cleaned up her own miss to draw a foul, making one of two free throws to give Pinewood a 55-54 lead with 1:09 left. Mitty freshman Hunter Hernandez struck back with a 3-pointer to give Mitty a lead, but Astrom made a driving layup to tie it back up and, after both teams missed late looks from deep, send it to double-overtime.

Pinewood got back-to-back 3-pointers from Jump to start the second overtime, but Hernandez struck right back, scoring five straight points and getting a key offensive rebound to lead to another Mitty basket and cap a 7-0 run to take the lead. Pinewood’s lone senior, Brianna Claros, made a driving layup with 29.7 seconds left to retake the lead, but a foul gave Mitty sophomore Ashley Hiraki two chances at the line with 6.1 seconds.  She missed the first but made the second to send the wild game to a third overtime.

At that point, Scheppler just took a moment to enjoy the absurd excellence of the game.

“For as big a game as that was, that’s the best game I’ve ever been a part of. Three overtimes in a NorCal Final,” Scheppler said, before repeating, “Three overtimes in a NorCal final.”

In the third overtime, Leung drilled a 3-pointer on the first possession and Pinewood’s defense locked in, only allowing two free throws the entire 4-minute stanza. Claros added a layup and a free throw to push the lead to six, and then the Panthers made their free throws to get to the final score of 78-67.

“When you play in front of 4,000 people and play like that, that was amazing,” Scheppler said. “The level of play by us was at the highest level was absolutely spectacular. Couldn’t be better. They earned it. We worked really hard and Mitty worked really hard. The best teams are the hardest workers, that do the most, that prepare, that do the little things. That was a celebration of the game.”

Claros added, “The atmosphere and what was at stake — going to State — combined with the crowd, it was amazing.”

While we won’t know what will happen to Mitty’s No. 1 ranking until early next week, Phillips is still immensely proud of the season her team had and the effort they gave tonight.

“Let’s not forget this team is 29-1. It’s a night that, unfortunately, we don’t get an opportunity to redeem ourselves,” Phillips said. “We had a night that wasn’t our best, and we have to credit our opponent. But I couldn’t be prouder. Yeah, we’re on the losing end of the scoreboard, but I’ll go to battle with these guys no matter which five are on the floor.”

A major reason for that success tonight, according to Scheppler, was the rebounding. Knowing Mitty has a size advantage over them, Scheppler has stressed to his team that they must crash the boards.

“Defensively, we had the right gameplan. The key to the game: Pinewood 50, Mitty 45,” Scheppler said of the rebounding total, which elicited gasps of surprise from the players surrounding him. “We held our own. We didn’t give up so many put-backs, and we out-rebounded them. That says a lot about wanting the ball.”

And don’t forget about the outside shooting, too. Pinewood finished the night 11-for-26 from beyond the arc, led by their star shooter Jump’s 6-of-11 performance from deep en route to a game-high 24 points. Scheppler quipped, “The basketball gods like how we play.”

But don’t let this monumental win fool anyone into a sense of complacency. The Panthers know they have one more game left to go, the California Open Division championship game against Windward (Los Angeles), ranked fourth in the nation by Maxpreps. Jump already has her mind starting to steer towards 6 p.m. next Saturday at the Golden One Center in Sacramento.

“I can’t really put into words how excited I am for this team.” Jump said. “We’ve been working for this all season long. This has been our goal. Now, to get to play in the Open state championship is going to be amazing.”

But to Scheppler, the mad scientist in charge of this historic group of giant-slayers, that’s not the only thing he’s looking forward about this next week right now. With an exhausted but elated smile, he sounded every bit like a basketball-addicted coach when he said, “I’m really, really excited to play in the state championship game, watch them continue to grow and spend six more days with them.”