GIRLS’ BASKETBALL / STATE TOURNAMENT : It’s a Tale of Two Champions: Lynwood Meets Sacred Heart

OAKLAND —  A strange situation has arisen in the State Division I girls’ basketball tournament. When Lynwood plays Atherton Sacred Heart at 6 p.m. in the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday, each team will be a defending State champion.

Of course, they won their titles in different divisions.

Lynwood won its title in Division I, which consists of the state’s largest schools and those with the strongest basketball traditions. Sacred Heart won its title in Division V, which is the state’s lowest level.

And therein lies the strangeness. How does a team jump from the lowest division to the highest and still contend for the State championship?

“Good players,” said Sacred Heart Coach Mike Ciardella.

Two starters from last season’s Sacred Heart team currently play for NCAA Division I teams, and two senior starters on this year’s team will head for Division I schools next fall. Not bad for a high school with an enrollment of 288.

Sacred Heart was not challenged in Division V last season. The Gators were undefeated during the regular season, winning games by an average of 40 points and defeating El Cajon Christian in the State final, 59-39.

Ciardella, who is 101-4 in three years as the Gators’ coach, said that girls’ basketball in the Atherton area is bolstered by the success of the nearby Stanford women’s team, which won NCAA titles in 1990 and 1992.

Ciardella’s assistant coach is former Stanford star Molly Goodenbour, most valuable player of the 1992 NCAA Final Four.

Junior center Jenny Circle, at 6 feet 3, averages 19.5 points, 13 rebounds and leads a balanced attack for Sacred Heart.

Circle and the rest of the Gators will be busy, however, containing Lynwood’s Timicha Kirby, a 5-11 senior forward who averages 22 points.

Lynwood is 32-1 this season, its one loss having been inflicted by Brea-Olinda in the championship game of the Rancho Cucamonga tournament in December.

If Sacred Heart (37-0) wins the State title, it will break its own California record for victories in a season, set last year. The Gators have won 74 consecutive games.

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