Madison Campbell reflects as Clovis West’s incredible four-year girls basketball run ends
Shots were dropping early and often for the Clovis West High girls basketball team in the CIF Southern California Open Division regional championship Tuesday night.
Eight 3-pointers in the first half helped the Golden Eagles build a 20-point lead and entertain visions of a second trip to the state championship game in three years.
But the shots stopped going through the hoop in the second half and fouls piled up as Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth chipped away and defeated the top-seeded Golden Eagles 74-70 at Buchanan High.
“We were playing good defense,” Clovis West coach Craig Campbell said. “The foul trouble hurt us and that shortened our bench. We got tired and stopped defending.”
Sierra Canyon junior Ashley Chevalier scored 16 of her 18 points in the second half to power the Trailblazers (32-1), who came in seeded third because they lost to Windward-Los Angeles in the Southern Section final. Sierra Canyon avenged that loss in the regional semifinals.
Clovis West senior Madison Campbell finished with 23 points but was plagued by foul trouble, picking up her fourth with 1:51 left in the third quarter. Soon, what had been a 37-17 Golden Eagles lead was 57-56 Trailblazers.
“We just let off the gas a little bit and we needed to stomp on it,” Madison Campbell said. “We played our hearts out, but ultimately I feel like we just didn’t own our game as much.”
And with that, the most remarkable four-year run in Central Section history came to a close. Seniors Campbell (USC), Champney Pulliam (Idaho) and Aari’yanna Sanders (Academy of Art) played varsity as freshmen and went 127-14 in four seasons. The 2017 state championship is the highlight, but they made the regional final each of the past two seasons and a regional semifinal as freshmen (beating Sierra Canyon in the quarterfinal, by the way).
Campbell set a school record for 3-pointers in a game with eight against Montverde Academy at the Florida Prospects Holiday Classic in December and became the school’s career scoring leader in early January.
She finished with 1,933 points and 324 3-pointers. She will represent the school one final time when she plays in the PassThaBall “Who’s NXT” All-American Game in Tampa, Florida, on April 6.
“While it sucks, I had amazing memories,” Campbell said. “I’m thankful for everyone and everything I was able to get out of this program.”
Anthony Galaviz: 559-441-6042, agalaviz_TheBee
This story was originally published March 5, 2019 at 10:39 PM.
