Girls basketball: Marin Catholic set to host NorCal title game

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Marin Catholic guard Izzy McFadden (22) passes the ball away from defensive pressure by Moreau Catholic guard Elisa Ortega (2) during the second quarter of a NorCal Division III girls’ high school basketball game, Saturday, March 8, 2025 in Kentfield, Calif. (D. Ross Cameron/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

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The Marin Catholic High girls basketball team has been making it look easy since they started the North Coast Section tournament.

The Wildcats have won all seven of their games since then, including winning the NCS D-II title game and now are a win away from playing for a state championship.

Typical for its NorCal Division III run, MC jumped out to a big early lead and weathered Moreau Catholic’s rally attempt in the fourth quarter to post a 50-36 victory in Saturday night’s semifinal game in Kentfield.

Thanks to Justin-Siena’s 48-43 upset win in overtime against No. 1 seed Immanuel, the third-seeded Wildcats will get one more home game when they host the No. 4 Braves on Tuesday night in the NorCal final. The winner goes on to state to face the El Camino Real-Mater Dei Catholic winner out of the SoCal bracket.

MC hasn’t advanced this far in NorCals since winning the program’s only state title in 2002 — a squad led by Brooke Smith, Adrienne Payne, and Nickie Warren.

This will be the third meeting of the season between MC and Justin. The Wildcats were able to avenge a regular-season loss to the Braves by beating them a week ago to claim the D-II section title on Justin’s home court.

“We’ve played a tough strength of schedule and the girls have bought into what I’ve done,” said MC coach Kayden Korst, whose squad started the season 2-6 but have gone 22-5 since then. “It took awhile for us to get our feet wet, but these girls have been amazing.”

Against No. 7 Moreau Catholic (24-9), Izzy McFadden poured in 19 of her game-high 23 points in the first half to help stake the Wildcats (24-11) to a 31-9 halftime advantage over their foes from Hayward.

McFadden hit all three of her 3-pointers in the first half to go with several easy layups she was able to convert from teammates’ passes on backdoor cuts against the Mariners, who were often overplaying to try and get steals.

The Wildcats also were able to limit Moreau’s leading scorer Elisa Ortega to one 3-pointer she hit early in the first quarter, shutting her out the rest of the half.

“They were a fast team, but our defense was ready,” McFadden said. “We were rotating. We were communicating and flying around so much better than we ever have. They were super athletic. Something we aren’t too used to, but we handled it well.”

Brooke Spagnuolo was MC’s only other player to finish in double digits with 10 points and Cecilia Biernat added eight points.

“The idea is to go up big, play our bench and keep our kids rested,” Korst said. “They’re beat. They’ve been playing basketball for a really long time now. Just trying to get some rest. Save some legs and also take care of business and the girls did just that.”

Jocelyn Gigounas scored five points but had some key steals and came up big on the offensive and defensive glass for MC.

“I trust my teammates so much to make shots that I love getting extra opportunities for the whole team,” Gigounas said.

Ortega (20 points) did find the range for the Mariners in the fourth period. She had 15 of her team’s 17 points during that time to help the Mariners make a final push.

Ortega hit back-to-back threes to cut it to a 12-point deficit – the closest Moreau had been since early in the game – with just under 3 minutes left in the contest.

After a Wildcats’ timeout, Biernat’s bucket on an assist from Spagnuolo ended Moreau’s 6-0 run and MC was able to take out its starters about a minute later.

“MC plays hard and does whatever it takes to win,” Moreau coach Justin Reid said. “One thing my girls haven’t seen is a Princeton offense. We tried to prepare them for it, but they really weren’t prepared. Marin Catholic is always a hard game and they had a big crowd cheering for them that our girls haven’t really seen until now.”

Gigounas and her teammates didn’t let themselves get too down when wins weren’t piling up at the beginning of the season.

“We’ve been so focused on winning MCALs, NCS and state,” she said. “I think we did a good job of using the losses at the beginning of the season to grow as a team and I think it really shows.”

Girls basketball: Marin Catholic set to host NorCal title game

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