CONCORD – When star Archbishop Mitty ahead McKenna Woliczko fell to the bottom and clutched her proper knee with 5:30 left within the second quarter of the Monarchs’ sport in opposition to Ontario Christian on Saturday afternoon, the packed health club at Carondelet went silent.
After being examined by medical personnel for a number of minutes, the perfect women basketball participant within the Bay Space was helped off the court docket by her father, Aaron, and didn’t reappear on the sidelines at any level within the second half of Mitty’s 61-44 loss.
The severity of the damage is unknown. Longtime Mitty coach Sue Phillips stated her workforce continues to be coming to grips with the junior’s damage.
“There were a lot of tears on the bench.” Phillips stated.
Mitty, which had not misplaced an everyday season sport since December 2022, had began the season 9-0. The Monarchs routed Ontario Christian, then No. 1 nationally, two weeks in the past in a event championship sport in Arizona.
A fourth consecutive berth within the state Open Division title sport as NorCal’s unquestioned high workforce gave the impression to be a certainty.
However with out Woliczko, the two-time Bay Space Information Group participant of the yr, for almost all of the sport and most definitely for the foreseeable future, Phillips stated different gamers might want to step up if the Monarchs are to remain on track.
Mitty entered Saturday’s sport ranked No. 1 within the nation, Ontario Christian No. 2.
Ze’Ni Patterson, a sophomore switch from Heritage in Brentwood, shouldered a bigger accountability after Woliczko’s damage. She scored a team-high 14 factors.
“Prayers up for McKenna,” Patterson stated. “I feel like our team played well just trying to push through our feelings and emotions.”
How Mitty, which nonetheless options different high-level expertise resembling Devin Cosgriff and Tee McCarthy, will play going ahead is but to be decided, based on Phillips.
“We don’t know (yet), but we just know we’ve got to look at the film and figure out where we need to specifically shore up some things,” Phillips stated.
Regardless of dropping an irreplaceable expertise like Woliczko, the Monarchs stayed aggressive into the second half even after the ahead went down with the San Jose non-public college held a 19-17 lead.
On the Ontario Christian aspect, top-ranked sophomore Kaleena Smith scored a game-high 23 factors on an array of dizzying dribble-drives and troublesome leap pictures. Freshman Tati Griffin had 14 and 6-foot-7 freshman middle Sydney Douglas scored 9 factors and blocked a handful of pictures.
Mitty stayed within the sport till the ultimate interval. The Monarchs trailed simply 42-40 after three quarters as freshman ahead Maliya Hunter made two three-pointers and Cosgriff and Emma Prepare dinner every had 5 factors.
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However the Monarchs couldn’t maintain Ontario at bay without end, and lacking Woliczko’s unstoppable mid-post and inside bucket-getting, the Monarchs couldn’t sustain and scored simply 4 fourth quarter factors.
“We had great spurts, but obviously we were missing a huge component to our team as we were trying to find out way, and we did at times,” Phillips stated. “We did a terrific job of competing and fighting back. We just couldn’t sustain it.”
Archbishop Mitty performs at Valley Christian on Tuesday because it opens West Catholic Athletic League play.
