Sierra College women’s basketball beats Delta, wins first state championship since 1999

Jenna Duley, Kiki Griffen, Devon Lewis and Rachel Loya didn’t have to stay.

Those are the four Sierra College women’s basketball players who have been on the team the past three years., including the lost season of 2021. They graduated in May, but came back for this moment.

It paid off.

On Sunday afternoon at West Hills College in Lemoore, Sierra topped Big 8 Conference rival San Joaquin Delta 76-71 to win the CCCAA state championship. The Mustangs of Stockton were the top-ranked team in the state. Sierra finished 28-3.

Sierra’s Jesse Miller scored a game-high 33 points and was named tournament MVP. Duley scored 14, Brianna Lambey had nine rebounds off the bench and Christina Olivia sealed it with a clutch free throw at the end to give the Wolverines their second state banner, the last coming in 1999 under coach Roz Goldenberg.

Duley was one of the sophomores who had offers to play at a four-year program. JC players, like four-year players, were granted an extra year of athletic eligibility due to the pandemic. She came back because she wanted to win a state championship

“Staying a third year is the best decision I ever made,” Duley said. “I stayed because of the commitment I made to my coaches, teammates, and my ultimate goal to win a state championship. These dreams have become a reality. The relationships I have built with my coaches and teammates have been nothing but great. These girls have become a family to me, and I knew what we could do with this team. We all are gym rats, play for one another, trust each other and are each other’s biggest cheerleaders.”

The 2020 CCCAA state basketball championships were canceled right before tip-off in 2020 because of COVID-19 and there wasn’t a season in 2021 for the same reason. Some area junior colleges didn’t play home games with fans this season.

“The group of girls that stayed a third year too mean the world to me,” Duley said. “We have all gone through so much adversity and have remained together through it all. In 2020 we had just had our shoot around, gotten lunch, and had made it back to the hotel to get ready for our game when we got the call that the state tournament was canceled. Then our sophomore season all together got canceled due to COVID. From that time on, we knew we had unfinished business. It was all our goal to win a state championship together and we did just that by finishing business. We have created so many memories and these girls will be my sisters forever.”

When Sierra coach Brandie Murrish reflected on the season, she summed it up in a word: grateful. Grateful to be playing and thankful her returners came back.

“(It was) absolutely critical,” Murrish said. “Those players who did return, they had offers to move on. It’s crazy how the season was cut short right before tip-off in 2020. They felt like they were robbed and this opportunity wasn’t going to come around again. They wanted to go get it. We talked about this for the last two years. The process leads to this result. In life, adversity builds character. Our players have been resilient. They’re tremendous student-athletes and humans. Hard work pays off and they’re very deserving of a state championship.”

The coach added, “There is such a rich basketball tradition at Sierra College. It means so much work has been put in by our alumni, our coaching staff and current players. I am so grateful for the opportunities we had this year. Our team capitalized on those opportunities and true champions do that.”

Murrish has been at Sierra since 2006, taking over for Goldenberg, the longtime coach who stepped down after winning 322 games over 15 winning seasons. In her first season at Sierra, Murrish led the Wolverines to the state championship game, a loss. After 16 years as the coach, Murrish has won 359 games, and she finally got her championship.

The win by Sierra is historic for women’s junior college basketball in the Sacramento area. It marked the first women’s basketball state championship at the school since 1999. The only other area team to win a state championship in this tournament was American River College in 1989 under coach Tami Yasuda.

Sierra and Delta were co-champions of the Big 8. The previous two regular-season matchups were won by Delta, including a 88-50 Delta rout in February. Fourteen of the previous 16 women’s basketball state champions were won by teams from Southern California, and then this season two NorCal rivals.