Holy Court, milestones and upsets define prep basketball week

Bee-ranked No. 15 Christian Brothers beat rival St. Francis 50-44 in the annual Holy Court game Saturday for the second year in a row as Bria Shine went for 18 points and Karli Cooper 11.

It was a packed house inside Ron Limeberger Gym, as is the norm any time these rivals compete in basketball or volleyball. Students stormed the court after its team got the victory. Rushing the court or field at “holy events” between Christian Brothers and St. Francis or Jesuit has become the norm.

Earlier this season, Christian Brothers beat Jesuit in front of a large crowd at Hughes Stadium in the Holy Bowl — and fans went nuts.

Christian Brothers coach Shandyn Foster, a former Falcons player, revved up the locker room after the win by celebrating with her players. She is now 3-1 against St. Francis in her short tenure as the Falcons coach, including in a tournament last season in Stockton.

Another Parry Milestone

Del Oro senior post Madison Parry became the school’s all-time leading scorer against Whitney in a Sierra Foothill League game. Parry broke the record on a free throw and passed Emilie Johnson’s mark of 1,537 career points. Earlier this season, Parry broke the all-time rebounding record of 893 held by Meghan Griffith.

Upsets everywhere

Newly second-ranked Laguna Creek upset previous No. 2 McClatchy on Friday 59-55 in a Metropolitan Conference thriller. It was the first local loss for McClatchy (16-2), which had only lost to California of San Ramon. Laguna Creek has been led this season by a pair of sophomores — Zoe Tillery and Harry Young. These teams play again Feb. 5.

No. 10 Granite Bay is coming off its best win of the season, beating previous No. 3 Oak Ridge in an SFL opener. Since Oak Ridge joined the SFL in 2014, it had gone 10-0 against the Grizzlies. Granite Bay has been paced by Bri Lambey, Sam Miller, Julia Riley and Katelyn Sitterud.

McDonald’s All-America nominations

Shine of Christian Brothers and Maile Williams of Capital Christian are the only girls within the Sac-Joaquin Section who made the McDonald’s All-American Game nomination list.

It’s a credit to those players as Shine is headed to UC Davis and Williams has scored more than 1,000 career points, though this game is generally slotted for the five-star national recruits. More than 700 girls and boys players each year are nominated to make 12-person McDonald’s rosters.

Only four area girls have made the team over the 18 years this game has been held: Jenn Hall of Folsom in 2003, Vicki Baugh of Sacramento in 2007 before she went to Tennessee, Sara James of Oak Ridge in 2010 before heading to Stanford and McKenzie Forbes in 2018 before heading to Cal (she is now at Harvard).

Marcus Bagley of Sheldon has a shot to make the boys team as a five-star recruit committed to Arizona State.

The boys game started in 1979. The only area boys players to make a McDonald’s roster were DeMarcus Nelson of Sheldon in 2004 after he graduated as the state’s all-time leading scorer, playing his first three seasons at Vallejo, and Jordan Brown or Woodcreek and, for his senior season, Prolific Prep of Napa. Those three made The Bee’s All-Decade team.

Boys basketball

Grant is hosting a Martin Luther King Jr. Classic event Saturday.

The schedule: Cordova vs. River City, 1:30 p.m.; Chavez vs. Yuba City, 3 p.m.; Central Cathlolic vs. Inderkum, 4:30 p.m.; Fortune School vs. Burbank, 6 p.m. and Vanden vs. Grant at 7:30 p.m, if every game goes an hour and a half and there are no fouls and no timeouts.

Expect the last game to start closer to 9 p.m., based on past experience.

Top-ranked Sheldon hosts the Adidas Challenge on Saturday with this schedule of games:

9 a.m.: Center vs. Freedom

10:30 a.m. Cosumnes Oaks vs. Liberty

Noon: Pleasant Grove vs. Benicia

1:30 p.m.: Pleasant Valley vs. Monterey Trail

3 p.m. Oak Ridge vs. College Park

4:30 p.m. : Elk Grove vs. Sacramento

6 p.m.: Davis vs. Clovis North

7:30 p.m.: Folsom vs. St. Patrick/St. Vincent

9 p.m.: Sheldon vs. Capital Christian

Scoring in bunches

The section’s top three leading scorers are guards, from schools small and not so small, according to statistics entered by coaches into MaxPreps.

A junior, Breckin Beaman of Sacamento Adventist Academy leads the way with a 28.6 average for the tiny school in Carmichael. Senior Jalen Patterson has shattered scores of school single-season and career scoring marks for Liberty Ranch and is averaging 28.3 points.

Cordova senior Isaiah Bolden is averaging 25.5 points.

THE BEE’S TOP 20

Boys

1. Sheldon (11-2)

2. Whitney (17-1)

3. Jesuit (12-4)

4. Capital Christian (10-6)

5. Grant (13-4)

6. Vanden (12-4)

7. Elk Grove (15-2)

8. Davis (11-3)

9. Rocklin (15-4)

10. Monterey Trail (11-6)

11. Folsom (12-6)

12. Burbank (14-5)

13. Woodcreek (16-3)

14. Oak Ridge (10-5)

15. Franklin (11-7)

16. Inderkum (12-4)

17. Vacaville (11-4)

18. Del Campo (13-5)

19. Cosumnes Oaks (11-6)

20. Rio Americano (12-5)

Bubble teams (listed alphabetically): Antelope (12-6), Bradshaw Christian (12-8), Christian Brothers (10-7), Del Oro (9-10), El Dorado (), Florin (13-4), Kennedy (10-9), Lincoln (13-5), Oakmont (11-2), Ponderosa (10-7), Sacramento (7-7), Wood (13-4)

Girls

1. Antelope (12-2)

2. Laguna Creek (16-1)

3. McClatchy (16-2)

4. Woodcreek (16-3)

5. Folsom (12-4)

6. Oak Ridge (12-5)

7. Franklin (14-4)

8. Placer (14-2)

9. Vanden (12-3)

10. Granite Bay (12-5)

11. Del Oro (12-5)

12. Lincoln (16-2)

13. West Campus (8-2)

14. Colfax (12-4)

15. Christian Brothers (10-6)

16. Sacramento (7-8)

17. Grant (13-6)

18. Vista del Lago (10-6)

19. Monterey Trail (11-2)

20. Rocklin (11-7)

This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 11:48 AM.