Mount Miguel Girls Capture Division III Hoops Crown

A handful of high schools have captured six CIF San Diego Section girls basketball championships, but no team has achieved the accomplishment in a shorter period of time than head coach Robbie Sandoval's Mount Miguel Matadors.

On Saturday, Mount Miguel overcame a huge first-period pothole and played like champions, transforming an early 10-1 deficit into a an eight-point halftime lead and going on to down Cathedral Catholic 63-55 in the Division III title game at USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion.

"Coach Sandoval just told us to settle down--we were too hyped," said senior Danille Miller, who started the turnaround en route to a double-double effort of 23 points and 10 rebounds. "They were playing man-on-man defense, so we just had to take our time and run our plays."

Miller began the climb from the nine-point hole by driving to the basket for a layin, the team's  lone bucket of the first quarter. The UNLV-bound Miller, a leading candidate for county player of the year honors, then hit her first four shots of the second quarter, including a pair of basline jumpers to cap an 18-6 seige to grab the lead.

When Cathedral paid more attention to stopping Miller, other Matadors stepped forward to pick up the slack, especially guard Myishia Watkins.

Racing to the basket off the dribble, she couldn't be stopped except when the Lady Dons fouled her. Watkins trotted to the foul line for 17 shots--an astounding number for a guard at this level of basketball--connecting 11 times en route to a game-high 24 points.

"We started really slowly," noted Watkins, who is headed for Grand Canyon University. "So we turned up the pressure by penetrating, then kicking the ball out."

When the ball went inside, junior center Shay Young cleaned up with 14 points. She also aided the Matadors defense with six rebounds and six blocked shots to fuel the transition game.

Cathedral guard Emily Kearney scored a team-high 15 points, but was shut out in the fourth quarter, as second-seeded Mount Miguel (23-7) successfully slowed down the game to capture another title, its sixth in the school's 10th consecutive CIF championship game appearance.

Cathedral (18-13), the fourth seed, reached the finale by upsetting No. 1 Our Lady of Peace in the semifinals.

Among the large-schools divisions, the previous mark for the quickest to six CIF section crowns was by Santana (1991-2002), which reached the half-dozen mark over 12 seasons.

Special to Patch.com from East County Sports.com

Cathedral Catholic    13       9      17      16    -   55
Mount Miguel                 8     22      19      14    -   63

Cathedral (55) -- Emily Kearney 15, Christina Kime 14, Malia Nawahine 12, Wendy Anae 9, Valerie Nawahine 5.

Mount Miguel (63) -- Myishia Watkins 24, Danielle Miller 23, Shay Young 14, Chantel Yell 2.