Christian Brothers suffers more heartache, falling to Atwater for basketball section title
Coach Shandyn Foster and most of the rest of the Christian Brothers girls basketball team remember the heartbreak from the 2023 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section finals loss to Whitney at Golden 1 Center.
Foster’s daughter, Kaia, went down early with a torn ACL and the Falcons couldn’t recover.
Christian Brothers exorcised those Whitney demons earlier this week with a gritty double-overtime victory against the Wildcats in Division II semifinals Tuesday and vaulted themselves back into the section championship game for the ninth time in program history.
Kaia Foster, now at Delta College in Stockton, watched nervously behind the Christian Brothers bench on Thursday evening in the same NBA venue as her mother guided this year’s crop of Falcons to a gritty battle with Atwater, a tough team from one of the deepest outhern parts of the section.
And although the Whitney win felt good for Christian Brothers, the top seed in the Division II bracket wanted more. The Falcons of Sacramento ultimately felt that same bitter feeling from 2023 when the second-seeded Atwater Falcons celebrated at center court after a 65-49 win, the program’s first section banner in the sport since 1988.
“We missed out on the details,” Shandyn Foster said. “We talked about boxing out. We talked about keeping the big girl off the boards. Transition D wasn’t the greatest today, which we talked about, so at the end of the day, it was all about details.”
Christian Brothers (25-7) started the season 4-5, but had won 20 of 21 entering Thursday’s championship game. Their season is not over, however, as all section finalists and semifinalists from Divisions I-V earn automatic berths to the CIF State championship tournament, which begins Tuesday and culminates March 14-15 back at Golden 1 Center.
Atwater began the game with a flurry of a 16-4 run behind Karissa Hukill and Cami Gibson. Christian Brothers closed the gap to 18-13 by the end of the first quarter with hustle efforts from Aleyah Harmon and post play from Joy Omishakin.
Three-point shooting from Harmon, Omishakin and Olivia Novi brought the Falcons back to within four by halftime, 31-27.
Atwater, however, extended its lead in the third with second-chance points. Hukill, who owns more than 1,500 career points with the Falcons, attacked the rim more aggressively, and Atwater entered the fourth with a 48-35 lead.
Atwater seemingly had a beat on every loose ball and several offensive rebounds early in the fourth quarter on its way to the 16-point win.
Harmon, exhausted and exasperated by the end of the game, played the final stretch of the game with a wrap on her leg after banging knees with an Atwater defender in the third quarter. One of the all-time Christian Brothers greats, Harmon’s spirits never wavered, leading her team with 15 points and six assists.
She exited with just over a minute left in the game to a long, emotional embrace from Foster.
“She’s nonstop, and I rely on her a lot,” Foster said of Harmon. “I know everybody’s worn down, but she’s a fighter. I really wanted this one for her this year.”
Omishakin had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Novi had 13 points with four 3-pointers.
Hukill led Atwater (27-5) with 20 points, nine boards and five assists. Gibson added eight points, 15 rebounds and nine blocks for the Falcons.
Nick Pecoraro is a sports journalist and host of “Premier Preps with Nick Pecoraro,” a weekly prep show available on YouTube that recaps games and teams in the Sacramento area each week. Find it at youtube.com/@PremierPreps.
This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 9:10 PM.