It wasn’t easy being green at Oak Grove High School during the CCS girls’ basketball semifinals on Tuesday.

Third-seeded Leigh, the first team in green to play, succumbed to second-seed Westmoor‘s Rams, 64-56, in a tension-wrought match. In the second game of the night, fourth-seed Paly fell, 66-38, to the first-seeded Archbishop Mitty Monarchs (25-2). Mitty captured their third-consecutive Division II CCS champions status with Friday’s 73-35 triumph over the Rams at Santa Clara University, and the Paly Vikings finished their season 26-4.

"We knew Mitty was a tough challenge," freshman guard/forward Rachael Pecota said. "We came out and we left everything out on the court that we could, and we gave it our all, and it wasn’t enough. But we tried."

The game began ominously for the Vikes, as Mitty captured the tip-off and standout junior guard Danielle Robinson scored a layup five seconds into the quarter. Two minutes and a Monarch free throw from senior guard Kassandra McCalister later, senior Paly guard Bre Clay scored off of an inbound pass. Robinson, whose 21 points made her the game’s highest scorer, hit her next rebound about twenty seconds after, bringing the score to 5-2.

“I think we did pretty good for what the coach wanted us to do,” Clay said. “We had a game plan and we stuck with it. It’s just that we didn’t come out to play with confidence. We just went out there and played scared in the beginning, and we just didn’t have time to put up our offense or anything like that ."

Junior guard/forward Katie Barich brought Paly within a point of Mitty for the last time with a goal from the side of the basket. Mitty then proceeded to dominate the Vikes, with McCalister scoring two consecutive three-pointers and a field goal. Pecota retaliated with a three-point shot, but Robinson soon contributed her third goal and a foul shot and another Mitty player scored a free throw as well. At the end of the quarter, Paly was dropping behind alarmingly, 19-7.

"We tried to prepare mainly for the full-court press, and I thought we did a good job, for our team," Viking head coach Scott Peters said. "It was a weakness we had all year long, and I have to do a better job preparing them for it."

According to Clay, Paly was counting on a much different offensive strategy than usual, one that emphasized slowing play down and doing a great deal of passing.

"The plan was to just slow the whole game down, to take control, and basically beat the press by passing and stopping Kassandra [McCalister] and Danielle Robinson," Clay said. "I think we did an okay job at that, but it could’ve been better. We did slow it down, and we did stick to the game plan, but the game plan wasn’t doing the work."

Unfortunately for Paly, Mitty kept up an intense full-court press, seizing the slower pace as an opportunity to double- and triple-team players with the ball in the backcourt, making the concept of ‘controlled passing’ much harder to implement. By the time the Vikes were able to get near the arc, there was usually no more than ten seconds remaining on the shot clock. This did not allow Paly enough time to set up effective plays and weakened the Vikings’ offensive presence.

"We followed our game plan," Barich said. "The only thing is that we rushed into the shots because we spent so much time running down the clock, we didn’t really set up our offense. But I think we played hard, and especially the seniors really got out there tonight. I’m not just saying that, they really put their hearts in there for us, and you could tell."

Senior Viking point Ranecia Fields kicked off the second quarter with an assist to Clay, who drove in to the basket from the side for the goal. The Monarchs soon responded with a rebound from Robinson and a player-weaving drive to the basket by 6’2” sophomore center Lindsay Leo.

Halfway through the period, a wild ball bounced off of a Mitty player for senior Paly guard/forward Megan Grant to pass to Barich, who followed through with a field goal. Much to the vocal delight of Paly’s supporting crowd, Pecota rallied with a hook shot 30 seconds later.

Mitty countered with two free throws and as many field goals. In the final seconds of the shot clock, Paly senior guard Melody Gaal scored off of an assist from Barich. Robinson then closed the quarter for Mitty, 34-15, with a half-court drive culminating with a layup, the last of her eight points of the quarter.

The third quarter proved the most successful for Paly, thanks in large part to Gaal’s field goal and four out of four free throws. With eight points to her name, Gaal was Paly’s highest scorer of the night, followed by Barich with six. Mitty made the first goal of the quarter a minute and a half in, much later than in previous periods, and followed up with another goal from the same spot at the side of the basket. Barich pulled out a goal shortly after with an assist from Clay.

About forty seconds later, Fields took a hard fall onto her back for the third time of the night, but the chronically resilient point returned to the fray less than a minute later as Gaal bagged two foul shots. Thirty seconds before, Gaal had made a goal from netside with Clay’s assist, and 6’2” Mitty junior center/forward Nicole Anderson made her third hard-to-block goal of the quarter from a similar position beside the basket.

Fields took full advantage of another foul on her by scoring two free throws, and chased the next two Mitty field goals with a driving layup from the half-court through three or more Monarch defenders. Gaal swished her last two free throws for Paly’s final points in that period. Mitty finished the quarter yet again by a goal with thirty seconds remaining, ending the quarter 49-27.

“We weren’t pump-faking enough,” Clay said. “They were tall, and they were jumping all over the place, so if we had pump-faked, we would’ve gotten more fouls on them. But we didn’t take advantage of that.”

Mitty continued its scathing aggressiveness in the next quarter with four consecutive baskets in the first two minutes and three seconds. Down by nearly 30 points midway through the fourth, Peters benched his starters and cycled through the bench, which included members from the JV team who had been brought up to Varsity as part of the practice squad.

"If this was in the middle of the season, we would’ve left maybe the [starting] players in, in order to work on things," Peters said. "But since it’s the last game of the year … I looked at the cost/benefits, and I wanted the other players to at least get in the game."

Freshmen Olivia Garcia and Lizzie Henehan made a basket each, with Henehan scoring a free throw as well. The season-long varsity players had a good show as well, as Fields and junior forward Nicole Behr scored a free throw each and senior guard Gaby Hanson executed a rebound, then assisted Behr on a field goal. With six seconds remaining in the game, a field goal from Mitty junior guard Desiray Johnston concluded the game, 66-32.

“I wish we could have made it a better game, but they [Mitty] are a top program in the state, and we want to work to where we can get to where we can compete better with them,” Peters said. “But I’m proud of how the girls played. They played so hard, and they did what I asked them to do.”

Peters, who coached Paly this season for the first time, said he hoped to return next year.

"I plan on just ramping it up and continuing on," he said.

The Vikings are excited for next season, although the graduating players will be sorely missed. For most of the seniors, Tuesday’s game was their last official one.

“I know Ranecia [Fields] and I are planning on going to college and continuing our basketball careers,” Clay said. “And everybody else, they said, this is it. We’ve been together so much and bonded, we just had a lot of chemistry together, but now it’s over. It’s just sad.”

Players remain optimistic, however, even with nearly half of the team leaving.

“We’re losing our seniors, but we’ve got a lot of heart and talent coming up,” Barich said. “I mean, it’s going to be a lot harder next year, but I think we’re up for the challenge. The JV players got into the game today, and they actually did pretty well. Hopefully we’ll have some more for next year.”

Pecota agreed, saying, “It’s going to be a challenge to get everyone to play as a team. But it’s going to be really fun to see how we do next year.”