CIF Basketball: Oakland High girls capture first-ever state title

SACRAMENTO — The question for Oakland High wasn’t if. It was more like when would the Wildcats put some separation between them and McFarland.

It finally occurred in the second half as Oakland captured its first-ever CIF State girls basketball title, rolling to a 51-35 victory over McFarland Friday afternoon in the Division III championship at the Golden 1 Center.

Oakland (30-5) outscored McFarland 25-13 in the second half after going to the locker room with a slim four-point lead (26-22) at intermission. The Wildcats scored the first nine points of the third quarter, part of a 13-0 run that began shortly before the first half ended. It gave Oakland a 35-22 lead.

“Sometimes the big lights get you a little bit,” Oakland coach Orlando Gray said. “I think it was a bit of anxiety for them. We talked about it at halftime.

“That was a good team we played, a talented group of young ladies. They were coached well and played hard.”

The difference was Oakland’s quickness and speed. It was especially noticeable on defense. McFarland (31-6) was guilty of 28 turnovers, 19 of them on steals by the Wildcats, who had only nine turnovers for the entire game.

Offensively, Oakland got off 74 shots compared to just 46 for McFarland, which plays in the Central Section that runs through Bakersfield, Fresno and San Luis Obispo.

Senior Morgan Dunbar led Oakland with 20 points and Khirah McCoy, also a senior, had 18. Dunbar had six of the 19 steals and Kya Pearson had four.

The steals led to a lot of easy layins of Oakland. The Wildcats consistently managed to send players downcourt, and pinpoint outlet passes led to a lot of easy baskets. Oakland was credited with only 12 assists, with Pearson leading with four. Dunbar, McCoy and Mariyanna Trahan each had three assists.

Asked how long it took for Oakland to realize it had a sizeable advantage in speed and quickness, Dunbar said, “We recognized it when we watched film.”

Dunbar said another goal for this game was to hold McFarland’s leading scorers — Neli Diaz at 18.1 points per game and Julie Hernandez at 11.6 — to half their combined total of nearly 28 points per game.

“We quickly picked out their top two players and told ourselves to cut their points in half,” Dunbar said.

Diaz and Hernandez got 22, but the rest of the McFarland team scored only 13.

In addition to winning the championship, Gray said he was equally proud of his team’s accomplishments off the court — a team grade point average of 3.6.

“Three of our players are over 4.0,” Gray said. “We’re solid as a group and as people,” Gray said. “I’m going to miss them.”

Oakland has five seniors on its roster.

McFarland took the loss hard, with several; of the players in tears, along with coach Johnny Samaniego, who became emotional several times on the post-game press conference.

“When I found out they shut down the school so they could come with us, I was really humbled,” he said.