Defending state Open Division champions Clovis West keeps season alive

Don’t tell Madison Campbell her defending state champion Clovis West High girls basketball team is not supposed to be playing this late in the season.

The junior guard drilled a a 3-pointer with 1:32 remaining to give the Southern California Open Division second-seeded Golden Eagles the lead for good in a 62-54 victory over No. 7 Mater Dei-Santa Ana on Friday evening.

Clovis West won last year’s state Open title with a team that included five players headed to Division I programs. The Class of 2017 went 116-15 for their career.

What do you do for an encore?

“Everyone doubted us since mid-season last year,” said Campbell, who scored 19 points Friday. “That fueled us to get here, and it’s an amazing feeling. People don’t know how hard we worked.”

This year’s Eagles include five freshmen who have contributed to a 31-3 season.

Friday night, Clovis West led 48-37 before the Monarchs rallied within 52-49.

That is when Campbell nailed a 3-pointer to give the Golden Eagles a 55-49 lead late in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles advanced to host No. 3 Harvard-Westlake-Los Angeles in the regional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Harvard-Westlake defeated No. 6 Clovis North 56-44. The Broncos finished their school’s finest season 26-6 with three losses to Clovis West (including the Central Section final), two losses to Harvard-Westlake (the other in the L.A. school’s tournament final) and once to national power King-Milwaukee.

Memorial boys fall

The fifth-seeded San Joaquin Memorial boys went into overtime and fell to No. 4 Sheldon-Sacramento 67-65.

Panthers sophomore Jalen Green scored 23 points. But he was blocked by 6-foot-10 Chris Wriedt on a dunk try with Sheldon up 65-63 with 1:43 to go. And Green missed another dunk a moment later as he was contested by waves of Huskies.

The Central Section Division II champions end the season at 25-7.

This story was originally published March 9, 2018 at 10:08 PM with the headline "Defending state Open Division champions Clovis West keeps season alive."