Category Archives: St. Monica Catholic HIgh
Girls Basketball: John Skinner resigns as head coach at St. Monica
St. Monica girls basketball head coach John Skinner resigned yesterday.
He led the Mariners to its first CIF-Southern Section title in school history when they defeated Camino Real League-rival St. Paul 46-45 for the 4-A championship.
St. Monica advanced to the state playoffs where they were knocked out by St. Bernard in the Division 4 SoCal Regional Semifinals.
Skinner was 59-34 in his three years at St. Monica, making the playoffs in each season.
Girls Basketball: St. Monica’s Briana Harris picks Hawaii
St. Monica guard Briana Harris has signed to play basketball at the University of Hawaii according to the head coach John Skinner.
Harris help lead the Mariners to the Southern Section 4-A title, the first in school history, when they defeated Camino Real League rival St. Paul 46-45. The senior was named the CIF-SS 4-A MVP after averaging 23.8 points and just under nine rebounds a game this season.
“Some PAC-12 teams were showing a strong interest late but she really felt comfortable with coach [Laura] Beeman and what Hawaii offered,” said Skinner.
Harris leaves St. Monica has the school’s all-time leading scorer in just two seasons of varsity play.
She will be joined in the Big West with teammate Melissa Maragnes who previously signed with UC Santa Barbara.
Jackson State (MS) was another school under consideration.
JC Basketball: St. Monica’s Jung takes assistant position at West LA College
St. Monica boys basketball head coach Khi-Min Jung resigned last week to take an assistant coach job at West Los Angeles College under recently hired Chris Ackers.
In his three seasons at the Santa Monica Catholic school, Jung finished with an overall record of 45-39 and one playoff appearance according to MaxPreps.com.
Westside High School Basball Schedule: Wednesday, April 3rd
Below are the westside high school baseball and softball schedule for Wednesday, April 3rd.
LA CITY SECTION
Western League:
University at Westchester
Fairfax at Venice
LACES at Hamilton
CIF SOUTHERN SECTION
Non-League:
Culver City at North Torrance
Windward vs Arrowhead Christian
St. Monica at St. Paul Tournamnet
St. Bernard at St. Paul Tournament
Girls Basketball: St. Monica season ends at the hands of St. Bernard’s
St. Monica knew in order to continue their historic run in the state basketball playoffs, they would have to contain St. Bernard’s star guard Chyanne Butler and stay out of early foul trouble.
Neither one of those things happened.
The Mariners had four players with four fouls by halftime and Butler scored a game-high 29 points as St. Monica’s season ended with a 75-52 home loss in the Division 4 Regional Semifinals.
St. Monica trailed by only a single point late in the first quarter, then gave up an unusual five-point play that broke the game wide open.
Butler was fouled during her successful layup, and teammate Lajahna Drummer went to the line after she was fouled on the tip-in of Butler’s missed free throw. Drummer made her attempt from the charity strip to start a St. Bernard 25-1 run as the Vikings led by 26 at halftime.
The frustration of watching their season come to an end took its toll on St. Monica (28-7) as three technical fouls were issued in the second quarter, including one on head coach John Skinner.
Girls Basketball: St. Monica beats rival Cantwell Sacred Heart for a fourth time
It’s tough to beat a team four times in a season, but St. Monica pulled it off defeating Camino Real League rival Cantwell-Sacred Heart 52-45 in the second round of the CIF state playoffs on Saturday.
“It was tough playing Cantwell a fourth time,” St. Monica head coach John Skinner said.
It was hard to tell, after the Mariners started the game on a 14-2 run thanks in part to their tenacious defense and Briana Harris’ active hands.
“I wanted to play hard but play within myself.” Harris said who scored a team-high 30 points in the victory.
The Mariners led by seven at the end of the first quarter, Cantwell gained their composure going on a 10-4 run, as Harris sat on the bench with early foul trouble.
Without their star player, St. Monica couldn’t defend or rebound, Cantwell’s Priscilla Rodriguez sparked the Cardinals in mounting a rally tying the game at 27-27 going into halftime.
“We knew it was a possibility they would come back,” Melissa Maragnes said. Maragnes was a key factor in the Mariners victory collecting eight rebounds and five points.
The intensity could be felt on the court when Cantwell’s Monique Mesa and Maragnes got tangled up in the second quarter and the crowd shouted their displeasure on what they thought was a dirty play by Mesa.
The Mariners came out on a 11-4 run in the second half and everybody contributed in rebounding after Skinner voiced his frustration going into the half where St. Monica was out-rebounded. Harris started heating up from outside after hitting a pair of three-pointers.
Harris put her hands in the air in victory once the clock struck zero in the game. Along with her 30 points, she made four out of six three-pointers and had three steals.
St. Monica will host St. Bernard on Tuesday with a chance to advance to the Regional Finals in Ontario.
Skinner says it will be a up-tempo type of game.
“We are gonna have to play our best game of the year on Tuesday,” he said.
Girls Basketball: St. Monica has a bittersweet win over St Paul for their first CIF title
The odds were not in St. Monica’s favor at halftime in the Division 4A championship game.
Having already lost two games along with the Camino Real League title to St Paul, the Mariners found themselves trailing by 17 points heading into the locker room at the break.
A frustrated Briana Harris didn’t care about that.
The senior led a second half comeback by scoring 22 of her 23 points in the final two quarters including a lay-up with 3.4 seconds left to give St. Monica a 46-45 victory and the school’s first girls basketball CIF section title.
It wasnt until halftime that the Mariners settled down in one of the biggest stages they have been on this year.
“I think we kind of forgot what we were supposed to do [in the first half],” St. Monica head coach John Skinner said.
The team forgot to play defense for the first 16 minutes of the game, where it seemed St. Paul couldn’t miss going five for eight from the three-point line that extended their lead 20-7 with 5 minutes left in the second quarter.
