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EspañolThe dust hadn’t even settled yet and Faith Christian School’s Lauren Harris was already thinking what is next: “Division V championship; let’s go.”
Remarks delivered nearly a near ago today after FCS won its first-ever Northern California state Division VI girls basketball regional title with a 58-53 win over Cornerstone Christian out of Antioch – the last step on the 2024-25 ladder for a school with just over 200 students (kindergarten through 12th grade).
Still, as she and the team were being showered with balloons; applause; admiration from all angles, Harris in that moment wanted more.
Maybe it is the respect she has for the late, great Kobe Bryant, who seems to never find time for rest; instead always trying to find that next edge to his game.
“Like what Kobe says, ‘rest at the end, not in the middle,’” Harris said. “That’s our mentality to give all you got for as long as you can.”
That next challenge lies today (Saturday morning, 10 a.m.) when Faith Christian School girls basketball will live out Harris’ premonition on that day nearly a year ago in real time at the Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-V championship. Harris and FCS will be vying for their third section crown in four years – and second straight at the G1C.
“I am blessed to be in this position,” Harris said.
Up next is Bret Harte, a much larger school with approximately 500-plus students out of Angels Camp, the lone incorporated city in Calaveras County with a rich mining history and historic downtown setting. Angels Camp, as of a recent census count, has a population of just over 3,600. Among them is a high school with a rich recent history in girls basketball: Bret Harte is the defending D-V champions with four trips to the finals in five years. Last year, it upset Woodland Christian at Golden 1 Center – the same program that rebounded with a CIF state title the following month.
FCS head coach Geoff Harris understands that to be successful today, the seeds the Lions sowed in December will need to become active.
“This is when they sprout,” Coach Harris said, … “when our counters are tuned up ready to roll. We’re a conceptual offense (so) we try to know reads and see what the counter is … Whatever they give us we try to take.”
FCS runs primarily through two dominant Sac-Joaquin Section players in Harris and fellow senior Presley Berry. The two are among the top in the division in scoring and almost every offensive and defensive category – not to mention those other hidden, yet vital intangibles that don’t show up in the nightly box score.
“We’re always impressed with the conditioning they have,” John Adams Academy head coach Anthony Schwartz said. “That’s one of the things we noticed, especially in the second game against Faith Christian. The conditioning of Lauren and Presley is so good it starts taking the great skills they have and it (makes) it more of a separator.”
Presley Berry is the top free-throw shooter in the division with over a 100 made free throws entering today’s contest. The Concordia-bound athlete was 8-for-10 at the stripe in the first half as FCS countered with an inside offensive presence for much of the first half against the Patriots.
“They did give us more downhill tonight,” said coach Harris on the plan with John Adams Academy.
Bret Harte (25-4) will counter with its top-two scorers, Maddie Kane and Emma Russell, who combined have scored 955 points, along with a host of capable role players in Annelise Zumbach, 180; Bailey Eltringham, 212; Maykayli Aitken, 189. Kane dropped in 18 on Tuesday during Bret Harte’s return to the finals with a 51-45 win over Woodland Christian.
Kane converted a trio from the perimeter, and was joined in double figures by Eltringham and the freshman Russell, helping Bret Harte overcome the early first-half double-digit deficit.
Defensively, Bret Harte allows an average of just under 29 points per game; 800-plus to nearly 1,700 scored for the season. FCS, by comparison, has scored over 1,900 points and allowed 959 through its 27-1 season.
“Job’s not far from finished,” coach Harris said.
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