Girls basketball: Redwood claims second consecutive MCAL crown

20-0. That’s the MCAL winning streak the Redwood High girls’ basketball team has crafted en route to a second-straight league championship.

The Giants reinforced their MCAL bragging rights with a 47-21 thumping of Marin Catholic in the league final at Terra Linda High on Saturday night

“We went 20-0 in MCAL,” said Redwood senior Brooke Denler. “It’s great, but it’s not easy, though. We have a good county, good teams. Marin Catholic has a great program so props to them. Redwood hasn’t been here in a while in this situation. We just took back what was ours.”

Such domination has not been experienced by the Giants since before COVID, when Kylie Horstmeyer and Jenny Walker suited up for Redwood.

“League is never easy,” said Redwood coach Zach Borello. “Doing this two years in a row, being 20-0 over the last two years, that’s a really good accomplishment for the seniors. I don’t have words to tell you how proud I am of them. It brings me to tears.”

Redwood (22-6) and Marin Catholic (11-14) await announcements on Sunday for North Coast Section divisions and pairings. The Wildcats also lost to the Giants in the MCAL finals last year but went on to win the CIF State Division III championship.

In the MCAL final rematch, the Giants exploded for 13 unanswered points in the third quarter to pull ahead 36-15. The Wildcats had made a brief run in the second period, but still only managed to close to within 23-15 at intermission.

“I have a really resilient group in there and they were focused,” said Borello. “Brooke Denler and Drew Schultz were unbelievable tonight. Kitty White was unbelievable tonight. Two seniors and a sophomore put us on their shoulders and said it’s going to be our game tonight.”

Schultz, a sophomore point guard, led all players with 16 points. The seniors — White and Denler — added 14 and 12 points, respectively,

“It was cool to see Drew have a breakout game,” said Borello. “She’s been waiting for it. It was so good to see in this environment.”

MC was led by senior forward Cecelia Biernat with 11 points. Sophomore Lauren Bailey came off the bench to give the Wildcats a spark on defense.

The Wildcats played without 6-foot-2 senior center Krystal Rose Huff, who was out of town participating in a volleyball tournament. MC could have used Huff’s size against the Giants’ twin towers; Denler stands at 6-1 and junior Hindi Copeland is 6-3.

“We’re all rooting for Krystal,” said MC coach Rachel Yarnold. “She hopes to get a volleyball scholarship to play at the collegiate level. We’re all super supportive of that. Obviously, we wish that she had been here.”

Yarnold admitted that the third-seeded Wildcats’ hard-fought semifinal win over second-seeded San Marin took a lot out of her players. Redwood had beaten MC 51-43 in the first meeting, but round two was never in doubt.

“It was awesome for us to even get to the championship,” said Yarnold. “No one expected that.”

Denler, who will not play in college despite scholarship offers, believes the Giants still have a lot to prove. Last season, Redwood took third in the NCS D-1 tournament and reached the NorCal D-2 second round.

“It’s not over yet,” said Denler. “We’re still going for NCS.”