NorCal basketball power shows it still has plenty of pop at Golden Gate Summer Shootout.

By Harold Abend, Special to CalHiSports.com

Before hitting the road next week for the NCAA Summer Certified Event viewing period, where we try uncovering California girls basketball players not on any of the major radar screens, we decided to stay close to home for the 14th Annual Golden Gate Summer Shootout

The June 27-28 event, managed by former Redwood of Larkspur Athletic Director Jim Halm and with proceeds benefiting his non-profit organization's Education Assistance Fund, found 24 boys teams and six girls teams competing at a combined five gyms throughout Marin County.

Teams from as far away Reno, Merced, Sacramento, Roseville and San Jose competed in the boys division, while all of the girls' teams were from the Redwood Empire with the exception of Albany.

With events spread out over so many venues and temperatures well into the 100s outside and just as hot if not hotter in the gyms, CalHiSports.com decided to focus on a few of the top Redwood Empire teams and players in action.

The result is the four games at three different gyms got coverage over the two days of the Shootout.

Only one girls' team won all six of its games, and that was the Bulls of Branson, and while none of the Marin boys' teams won all their games, one team showed it will definitely be a contender this coming season in the Marin County Athletic League.

Saturday kicked off at Terra Linda High in San Rafael with the Bulls girls taking on the Pirates' of San Anselmo Drake.

The Bulls, under new Coach Jason Montana, handled the Pirates easily in a 39-18 victory.

Montana, a 1999 graduate of Rutgers, comes to Ross after five years coaching high school in Highland Park, New Jersey and four years as an assistant on the Columbia women's staff.

He inherits a team from last year's coach and current San Domenico of San Anselmo Coach Mike Fulton, which loses Princeton-bound Lauren Polansky and Akana King, but still has other girls eager to continue the recent tradition that includes back-to-back Division V state championships and a Northern Regional runner-up finish the past three seasons.

The girl who will be looked upon to be a top scorer and rebounder is incoming 5-11 junior Lia Coito, who began to blossom and play a bigger role midway through last season.

Against the Pirates, she played sparingly, scoring 11 points and grabbing seven rebounds before being whisked off to Santa Clara to play with her East Bay Xplosion club team.

Incoming junior Lucy Horn handled the point well and had four steals, three assists and four rebounds to go with three points.

Hannah Cain, an incoming sophomore, also had a good game at guard. She scored seven points with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Soccer star turned hoopster, senior Ally Warson, a major contributor last season, also looked excellent on defense as did Jenna Harris.
From Terra Linda, the caravan moved south to Redwood, where the Mustangs of San Marin boys took an exciting 53-50 OT victory from the host Giants.

Mustangs' 6-fot-6 center Stuart Wesonga showed just why he will be one of the Redwood Empire's top players this coming season.

The incoming junior scored a team-high 17 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. He also had four blocks, three steals and two assists and was dominant in the paint.

Giants' star forward Demarques Wiggins, a 6-3 senior-to-be, had a game-high 19 points, including an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. He was 4-of-8 on treys and added six rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.

Sunday morning started with a 9 a.m. game at Kent Middle School in Kentfield where the Bulls' boys thrashed the Tigers (Roseville) in a 71-27 dismantling.

Current Harvard guard and former Branson star Oliver McNally, star of three-straight Bulls Division V state titles, was manning the clock at the scorer's table, and giving encouragement to his former school's squad.

Everyone got in the act for Coach Bob Donlan's charges, who played 12 games in four days, including seven in the Shootout, where they went 4-3 against all large schools.

In the Tigers victory, last year's leading scorer, Tyler Gaffaney, had 11 points in limited action and looked like he is going to be even better this year both on both offense and defense. He also had six assists to go with the scoring.

Several new faces emerged, including incoming seniors Marco Viti and Jordan Thomas.

Viti, a 6-5 center had 12 points and six rebounds, and the 5-11 Thomas, who can play the point or off guard, finished with a game-high 20 points and looked smooth going to the basket.

Two other players who will provide size up front and looked good are incoming 6-0 senior John Konstin and 6-2 sophomore Ethan Stuart, who scored eight points and had six rebounds.

For the final game, we went back to Terra Linda to see the Bulls against the Mustangs, but unfortunately for San Marin Coach Dan Lucia, he was forced to play without returning senior star and last year's leading scorer, Leslie Dittman (14 PPG average), who tweaked her knee in the second game of the tournament on Saturday.

The result was the Bulls blitzed the Mustangs early, moving out to a 20-7 halftime lead before Montana played mostly subs in the second half of a 38-30 victory.

"The stress test on the knee came back all right but you never know with a knee. We'll know more in three of four days,” Lucia said after Sunday's game.

Coito, back in Marin from Santa Clara, led the way again with 11 points and nine rebounds, mostly in the first half. She will get a fairly decent rating in the upcoming Girls of Summer rankings that will be compiled during the NCAA viewing period.

Warson added 10 points, and Harris and Cain chipped in with six points apiece.

Kelsy Baker, a 6-1 incoming senior, led the Mustangs with a game-high 14 points with five rebounds.

Also making his debut at the Shootout was new Terra Linda girls Coach Joe Corby, a former Branson assistant under Fulton.

Besides the girls' action at Terra Linda and boys games at Kent Middle School and Redwood, boys' games at the GGSS were hosted at Drake and Tamalpais in Mill Valley.

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