Fresno Christian boys, Caruthers girls win to advance to CIF state championships
Fresno Christian boys basketball coach Jon Penberthy would be the first to say he knew he had a good team, but good enough to make it to the state championship?
He had a good explanation for that.
“Fresno Christian never got out of the first round of state in basketball,” he said. “So you start looking ahead and you’re going, ‘how far can we go?’“
Guess what, coach? The Eagles are headed to the California Interscholastic Federation Division IV state title game after a 50-49 victory over Granada Hills Charter-Van Nuys in the Southern California regional championship. Fresno Christian will face Priory-Portola Valley at noon Saturday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
“We didn’t know we’d get this far,” he said. “We played four Division I teams out of the (Los Angeles) area. If you look at it that way, we’re a Division V school having to play all these (division) ones.”
After Fresno Christian’s Noah Coulton made 1 of 2 free throws to put the Eagles up by one, Granada Hills had a chance to win the game but misfired on a shot at the buzzer.
The Eagles celebrated in a packed gym.
“We denied (Granada Hills’ Julius Washington) on purpose,” Penberthy said. “Make somebody that’s not used to taking those shots. Jeremiah (Mason) did a great job forcing them into a Hail Mary 3-pointer. That shot goes in, then more power to them, but we made it as hard as we could.”
Eagles senior guard Aden Millwee was equally ecstatic how his teammates were able to pull it off.
“Just crazy,” he said. “That’s something we’ve worked on so hard throughout the year and since the beginning. It’s something I’ve dreamed of and the whole team has dreamed of. Just to win, it feels amazing right now. Just taking it all in and we still got one more to go.”
Caruthers girls headed to Sacramento
Caruthers is headed back to the state championships in Sacramento.
The Blue Raiders used a 12-0 run at the end of the third quarter to earn a 77-63 victory over Salesian in the NorCal regional final.
Caruthers will next face Rancho Bernardo in the Division II championship at 2 p.m. Saturday. Rancho Bernardo defeated Monache 35-25.
The Blue Raiders will look to make it back-to-back state titles. Last season, Caruthers defeated Granada Hills Charter 54-48 in the Division III championship game.
Following the game, Caruthers took a team photo and held a sign that read #4LT.
The Blue Raiders are remembering Larry Trigueiro, who recently died. Trigueiro was a fixture in the Caruthers community who others looked up to.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 9:33 AM.
