Grow the game: Folsom girls to face St. Mary’s after beating McClatchy in playoff thriller
Grow the game.
That’s the theme for anyone invested in high school girls basketball with feeder programs and camps designed to teach the game and ambitious varsity scheduling designed to test and harden players who range from capable to solid and superb. The formula has worked wonders in recent years all over, including Antelope, Placer County, Sacramento, Stockton, El Dorado Hills and Folsom.
The Folsom Bulldogs have been top ranked by The Bee since the start of the season, emphatically following up the best season in school history with an even better, stronger and deeper unit this campaign, headed by the 1-2 punch of post Kamryn Mafua and 3-point specialist Charlotte Climenhage and a host of skilled and determined teammates.
Early Tuesday afternoon, Folsom coach Lynn Wolking wondered if he’d have much of a crowd for that night’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I semifinal showdown against visiting No. 4-seeded McClatchy. He was pleasantly blown away by what he saw and heard.
There was a big crowd, full on the home side, everyone on the edge of their seats or standing. The game did not disappoint. In winning its 17th consecutive game, Folsom beat McClatchy 57-52 in a thriller, pulling away down the stretch to move to 25-2 and into Saturday’s 6 p.m. championship showdown with storied St. Mary’s at Golden 1 Center.
Mafua, Folsom’s 6-foot-3 junior post, scored eight of her 19 points in the fourth quarter to offset 23 points from McClatchy guard Tamaria Rumph. McClatchy star 6-2 forward Nina Cain had nine points and 11 rebounds, but she fouled out with just under five minutes remaining. Mafua scored back-to-back buckets to extend her team’s lead to 54-48. Jada Tupou sealed it with an inside bucket to make it 57-52 with 38.9 seconds to go.
Then the Bulldogs celebrated on the court and well into the locker room. The theme was appreciating the moment and the crowd, and the Bulldogs took none of it for granted.
“We only took out one side of the bleachers at first tonight,” Wolking said. “The girls were telling me they wanted everyone to come. Then, McClatchy comes in buses with fans. I walked outside and the line was wrapped around the building and cars are flooding in. We gotta roll these bleachers out. ... It couldn’t be more fun. I couldn’t be more proud of girls basketball. Great crowd, game’s tied all the way through, anyone’s game.”
Now the royal test.
St. Mary’s has left a formidable imprint on this section, not to mention the state-wide and national scene. The Rams of Stockton towered over this section so decisively and for so long that many wondered if they could be conquered. They stuffed their trophy case with a record 21 section banners, including eight in succession in D-I.
Folsom beat St. Mary’s 55-54 in last season’s section semifinals to prove it can be done, that the Rams put their shoes on one at a time like everyone else. The Bulldogs became the first area team since Sacramento High in 2008 to topple St. Mary’s in a game, regular season of postseason.
So, now, it’s on. Folsom and St. Mar’y’s have been the section’s top two teams all season. Folsom beat St. Mary’s 61-57 in a December tournament this season. The Rams, seeded second in this tournament, advanced to the finals by beating No. 3 Antelope 51-38 to improve to 23-8.
“We’ve taken a huge step as a program (the last two seasons),” Mafua said. “If we can beat St. Mary’s, it’d be a big statement for us.”
Legendary coaches on hand
Wolking said he was delighted to see his team celebrate. It wasn’t too many years ago when the Bulldogs struggled to win league games. The program had a rebirth, starting with dazzling guard McKenzie Forbes, a McDonald’s All-American now starring at Harvard.
“I told the girls that after the last game, the locker room wasn’t very jubilant,” Wolking said. “Told them, ‘I’m wondering if you’ve had enough of the season, but they said their season was really just starting. We’ve been waiting for a team like McClatchy.”
The game included cheerleaders and student sections for both schools, not the norm for girls basketball but a welcome sight, to be sure. Championship coaches from yesteryear were on hand, including Harvey Tahara, who elevated McClatchy from a so-so program just over 20 years ago into a powerhouse, coached by a trio of his former players.
McClatchy at 25-6 will likely be a high seed in the CIF Northern California tournament as all section semifinalists and finalists advance. What divisions McClatchy and Antelope are placed into won’t be known until the CIF releases the brackets on Sunday.
Also on hand was Steve White, the Oak Ridge coach who won the 2010 CIF State D-I championship and is still leading the Trojans. He sat next to Bill Baxter, who coached the powerhouse El Camino High teams of the 1990s and 2000s and now is an assistant at Folsom Lake College.
“Great basketball — wow!” Baxter said in typical good cheer at the half.
Deep team anchored by Mafua
Folsom’s rotation is as versatile as it is deep. It includes Mafua, Climenhage, Tupou, Celeste Johnson, Breyana Kimmons, Ella Uriarte, Aryn Bright, Dixie McClanahan, Sophia Mindermann, Brooklyn Perry and Natalie Munoz. A lot of them can shoot and they all defend.
Mafua has been a go-to in the post in crunch time. Wolking said she has the best hands of any player he has coached. On the theme of growing the game, Mafua’s game grows by the week.
She is a 3.7 student, taking AP courses in things such as her favorite, environmental science. She is a fast-rising recruit with invitations to attend programs in the Pac-12 to the Ivy League, including Yale. She started playing basketball in the fourth grade. She is the daughter of athletes in a family full of them. Her father, Ese Mafua, was a Bee All-Metro lineman star for Grant High in the early 1990s.
Mafua also likes the idea of growing the game, knowing that kids look up to her as a role model.
“I’ve been playing since the fourth grade,” she said, beaming. “It’s fun every day.”
But not so much much for nervous parents.
“I’m sitting here biting my nails all game,” Ese Mafua said after the game with a laugh, a crowd of family and friends nearby. “Kamryn loved softball as a kid. Once got her a $300 bat, and she soon said, ‘Dad, I just want to play basketball.’ She has ever since. I just love how far the girls game has come. Exciting times.”