Girls basketball: Redwood storms into section semifinals

Please refrain from mentioning that the Redwood High girls basketball team is the No. 6 seed in the North Coast Section Division I tournament.

The Giants are taking the snub personally and responded with a convincing 63-42 victory over No. 14 Montgomery of Santa Rosa in the quarterfinals on Friday night.

“We’re the one seed in my opinion,” said Redwood coach Zach Borello. “That’s what I tell (our players). I say what seed are we? And they say we’re the one seed. That’s our mindset. We might have to go on the road but they also have to play us.”

Redwood, which has won 14 straight games, travels to Oakland on Tuesday night when it meets No. 2 Bishop O’Dowd in the NCS semifinals. O’Dowd dispatched Alameda 75-44.

The Giants (22-9) won their first NCS title in program history last season, playing in the Division II bracket, and enter this year’s Division I tournament with their recent MCAL title as further support for their confidence.

“We’ve been preparing all season for this,” said Redwood senior guard Maya Saibel, who scored a game-high 23 points. “We feel confident. We feel ready.”

The Giants produced one of their most dominating quarters of the season after halftime to seal their win against Montgomery (17-11). After lugging a 31-27 edge into the locker room, the Giants reeled off 18 unanswered points to start the third quarter for a monstrous 49-27 cushion that sealed their second-straight NCS semifinal appearance.

“The key to that run was definitely our defense,” said Saibel. “We said at halftime we needed to up the intensity and to stack stops on top of each other, and that is what pushed us to that huge lead.”

Redwood forward Kitty White, who finished with 19 points, got the Giants rolling in the third quarter, with the first two baskets to make it 35-27 less than a minute after intermission. White added a steal and fed Saibel on a fast break to put the Giants ahead 44-27 forcing a Montgomery timeout.

The Vikings failed to score until there was 2:53 remaining in the quarter, finally getting a three-pointer by Kailene Sundara, but by then the Giants were well on their way back to the NCS semifinals.

Montgomery actually did Redwood a huge favor by upsetting No. 3 Arcata 48-41 in the first round. Had Arcata won, the Giants would have been forced to make the four-hour trip north.

The Vikings got 17 points from senior forward Emily Mathis, who is being recruited by College of Marin, and 10 points from Kyle DeVries.

With a core group of players who now have NCS and MCAL titles to their credit, the Giants believe they are serious contenders regardless of their No. 6 seed.

“Last year definitely prepared us for these high-stake games,” said Saibel. “Today was win or go home. We stepped up to the challenge and having that experience from last year really helped us.”