Tiny Pinewood pulls second huge upset of week, shocks No. 1 Mitty

Video: Pinewood shocks Mitty
Watch the Panthers make up a 16-point third-quarter deficit to pull away in the third overtime.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With his team down 16 in the middle of the third quarter, Pinewood (Los Altos Hills) girls basketball coach Doc Scheppler just kept coaching. Riding the refs. Exalting his team.

"Sixteen points for these girls is nothing," he said.

But Pinewood wasn't playing any team from the West Bay Athletic League.

These were the princesses of high school basketball, the Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) Monarchs, the No. 1 team in the nation, winners of 29 straight games, including the top three teams in succession at the Nike TOC in December.

Impeccably coached by the national Naismith Coach of the Year Sue Phillips, these Monarchs were sure proof. Money in the bank in every regard: Supremely conditioned. Poised. Skilled.

Led by one of the nation's top juniors, 6-foot-2 wing Haley Jones and Penn State-bound point guard Karisma Ortiz, Mitty was in complete command over a team they had defeated by 14 points on the same court — the Leavey Center on the campus of Santa Clara University — for the Central Coast Section championship two weeks earlier.

So despite their best efforts, the Panthers from Pinewood, themselves a six-time state champion in the smaller-school divisions, appeared destined for the eighth straight loss at the hands of their arch-rival about 15 miles North on picturesque Highway 280.

But Scheppler just kept coaching, kept believing and low-and-behold, Pinewood got the break it needed.

Jones who already had 17 points and 10 rebounds to that point, picked up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter.

Then, everything flipped.

Behind the shooting of Stanford-bound Hannah Jump (24 points, nine rebounds), rebounding of Klara Astrom (13 rebounds) and remarkably floor game of point guard Brianna Claros (20 points, five assists), the Panthers not only made a game of it, they pulled off the impossible.

Calling it the best moment of his illustrious coaching career, Pinewood pulled out a 78-67 triple overtime win in the CIF Northern California Open Division championship, regarded as one of the greatest girls games in Northern California history.

By the end, Scheppler was grinning ear-to-ear on the sideline, pumping his fists and still exalting his girls.

When the final horn sounded, following a 13-2 run in the final overtime, the Pinewood team sprinted to midcourt and embraced. Scheppler, with arms raised, joined the party last. 

"I just want to comment on the heart, the grit, the resilience, the toughness of my team," a more composed Scheppler said in the media room afterward. "When you play a team as esteemed as Mitty and things aren't going your way, there's a tendency for teams to fold. There was no el foldo."

It was the second improbable win five days for the Panthers (27-2), who defeated the nation's No. 5 team St. Mary's (Stockton) 59-56 on the road in the Open semifinals.

What made that even more improbable was that St. Mary's, led by McDonald's All-American Aquira Decosta, wasn't looking past the Panthers. In fact, two seasons earlier Pinewood knocked of St. Mary's, which was then undefeated and the No. 1 team in the country in the same NorCal semifinal scenario.

This school of only 210 high school-aged students nestled in the foothills of Silicon Valley, has always played a special brand of basketball — "We don't play like the Warriors," Jump said. "The Warriors play like us." — but their one nemesis Mitty, a school of 1,800 students, appeared about unbeatable.

"People there to witness it, we won a lot of hearts today," Scheppler said. "I mean, the basketball gods like how we play."

Clearly, getting Jones in foul trouble was a major factor. She fouled out with 1:30 left in regulation and played 24 minutes of a 44-minute game. Another starter Ania McNicholas also fouled out in the first overtime. Three weeks earlier, the team's 6-2 post Nicole Blakes, who has signed to San Diego, injured her knee and was lost for the season.

Phillips, always classy in defeat or victory, pointed those things out afterward, but didn't offer them as excuses.

Instead, she credited her team to be able to force three overtimes. Much of that was duo to super freshman guard Hunter Hernandez (18 points, seven rebounds) and Ortiz (14 points, 11 rebounds).

"What an incredible triple-overtime effort given the set of circumstances that we have kind of experienced the past few weeks," Phillips said. "You're looking at a group that took one on the chin with tremendous adversity. … I think our kids did a fantastic job of responding."

Asked about the importance of Jones fouling out, Scheppler said: "Huge, but that's basketball. You've got to play with foul trouble, you've got to absorb that."

It helped that he had a shooter like Jump, who made 6-of-11 attempts on three pointers. "We always try to tell her that she's the best shooter in America. … and tonight she proved it," Scheppler said. "And those weren't easy threes. Those were NBA threes. I wanted to give her four (points) on a couple of those."

Pinewood, which got 14 points from Kaitlyn Leung including a three-pointer in the third overtime to put her team up for good, now moves on to face Windward (Los Angeles) for a state championship.

For the second straight season, Mitty ended the season with a brutally tough loss. Last season, the Monarchs were the top-ranked team in the MaxPreps computer rankings, but lost to No. 2 Clovis West 44-40 in the state championship.

On Saturday, Phillips noted all of the team's accomplishments and superb attitudes. "My greatest disappointment," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Is not being able to coach them on Monday. That's my greatest disappointment is that I have to say goodbye to these three seniors. I love them like daughters."