Carondelet basketball powers through to second state triumph

CONCORD, CA (Mar. 19, 2025) — With the clock ticking under one minute remaining in the girls California State Division I high school basketball championship game Carondelet found itself one point behind Sage Hill of Newport Beach.

The Cougars from Concord then sank four consecutive free throws in the final seconds to hold off the Southern California champions and win their second-ever CIF basketball title, matching the exploits of the 2003-04 team led by future McDonald’s High School and Stanford All-America Jayne Appel, then just a sophomore.

Sophomore Celeste Alvarez had put Carondelet ahead by four with 94 seconds remaining on a three-point basket before Sage Hill retook the lead as Amalia Holguin, the last member of the late Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Five still playing high school ball, drained a three and assisted on a layup to give the SouCal champs a one-point advantage in the final minute of play.

That is when Carondelet’s junior defensive stars Layla Dixon and Olivia Smith each calmly made those four free throws for the final 51-48 score to cap the 30th win of the season for the Concord school.

Coach Kelly Sopak

This year’s team coached by Kelly Sopak won six consecutive games in the playoffs after losing twice to league rival San Ramon Valley in both the East Bay Athletic League conference tournament and then in the semi-finals of the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs. Carondelet rebounded to win the NCS Open third-place game and received the second seed in the Northern California D-I playoffs.

The Cougars beat four NorCal opponents to reach the school’s fifth State championship game. Since winning the 2004 finale Carondelet teams fell short of another title in 2006, 2009 and 2010 before breaking back through this year.

Sopak took over the Carondelet program in the spring of 2020. This was his first state championship after losing the State Open finale in 2016 when future collegiate and pro superstar Sabrina Ionescu led his unbeaten Miramonte team to the championship game but were defeated by Chaminade.

Last month Sopak was named one of the 100 Most Impactful People in Women’s College Basketball. His Cal Stars AAU program has sent over 250 young women to college programs since its founding in 2006.

He told the media after Friday night’s win in Sacramento, “I feel a lot of relief and it feels great.” Sopak should be especially pleased looking ahead as he only loses three seniors and had a total of five freshmen and sophs on this year’s squad.

Championship games

Since the high school playoffs returned post-Covid in 2022 the Cougars have been in the NorCal championship game three of the four years, finally going all the way this month.
Their quarter-final win at NorCal over Biship O’Dowd was especially satisfying because the Dragons knocked off Carondelet in last year’s finale on a last-second bucket denying them a state finals berth.

This is the fourth state team championship for Carondelet as Cougar cross country teams won titles 10 years apart in 1996 and 2006 to match the pair of basketball championships.

Clayton Valley Charter girls were top seed in NCS Division I but were eliminated in the semi-finals by California of San Ramon. The Ugly Eagles also lost the third-place game to Redwood-Larkspur, which denied them a spot in the NorCal playoffs.

De La Salle so close to joining Cougars at State

De La Salle made it to the Northern California Open Division boys championship game after winning EBAL and NCS playoff titles led by senior Alec Blair. In the NorCal finals Riordan of San Francisco staged a 20-4 run to overtake the Spartans, who last led by one at halftime.

The Spartans finished the season 28-5 after having their six-game win streak in conference and playoff games stopped by Riordan. De La Salle had lost the NCS championship game three consecutive years before dispatching Salesian this year for its first NCS title since back-to-back wins in 2019 and 2020.

Clayton Valley Charter won NCS Division I championships in 2022 and 2023 before being moved up to Open Division a year ago. The Ugly Eagles were back in the D-I playoffs this year and finally had the services of star Elijah Perryman who only played in half of the team’s 36 games, missing extensive time sidelined by injury.

Seeded eighth in NorCal Division II, CVCHS impressively bounced top seeded Rocklin 68-54 in the quarterfinals before falling to Destiny Christian Academy of Sacramento in the semis. Clayton Valley Charter had earlier lost in the NCS semi-finals to eventual champion Dougherty Valley.

Ygnacio Valley also was eliminated at NCS by Dougherty Valley a round earlier.