For Los Gatos High girls basketball coach Sara Quilici Giles and freshman standout Nicole Steiner, the moment hit them as Ella Rabtiz was hoisted up by her teammates to put an index card on the south wall at Helm Gym, the area that lists the school’s Central Coast Section champions.
For the first time in 40 years, the Wildcats were champions again.
Los Gatos 53, Homestead 26.
Los Gatos’ only previous title came in 1982, and the team had made three other championship game appearances: in 1978, 1984 and 2017.
“I’m very much a wear my emotion on my sleeve person,” Quilici Giles said. “I didn’t cry right away, but after looking at the team and seeing how happy and proud they were of themselves, I did tear up a little bit. And after Ella was hoisted up and we had pictures taken, I was a little bit of a mess there for a minute.”
Steiner, who finished with a game-high 18 points and 12 rebounds, also was moved in what transpired as the clock was winding down and in the aftermath of a dominating victory in the Division I championship game on Feb. 26.
“I just remember sitting on the bench with my teammates watching the clock tick down and taking it all in,” she said. “It was just a thrill being able to celebrate with my teammates. This is the first CCS finals I’ve won and it’s definitely going to stick with me as I grow up.”
By virtue of winning the section title, Los Gatos (24-3) earned the No. 4 seed in the CIF State NorCal Division II playoffs and hosts No. 13 seed Lick-Wilmerding (21-6) on March 1 at 6pm. Los Gatos and Homestead were meeting for the third time this season, having split two Santa Clara Valley League De Anza Division games.
The rubber match—“The only one that counts now,” Quilici Giles said—would determine the Division I CCS champion. It was never close. The Wildcats jumped all over the Mustangs, taking a 16-7 lead after the first quarter and extending it to 32-17 at halftime.
Los Gatos kept its foot on the pedal in the third, pitching a 11-0 quarter shutout. In fact, Homestead didn’t score its first points of the second half until there was 1 minute, 51 seconds left in the game. Coming out strong in the third quarter was a point of emphasis because throughout the season Los Gatos has had letdowns out of the halftime break.
“We really wanted to start strong and not give them time to hang around,” Quilici Giles said. “We wanted to make a statement from the beginning and wanted to play our game and tempo.”
The Wildcats did just that, as Jeanette Grasty got off to a hot shooting start by making three 3-point shots in the opening quarter. Steiner helped set the tone early when she drew a foul after rebounding her own miss on the team’s opening possession.
And Ashley Childers had one of the key plays of the game, blocking a shot when Homestead had a 3-on-2 break. Had the Mustangs scored on the play, they would’ve only trailed by one point, 11-10, with 5:40 left in the second quarter.
Even though Homestead did manage to get to within one the next time down the floor, it was short lived. The Wildcats took control from there, closing the quarter on a 21-7 run. How dominant were the Wildcats? They led by as many as 36 points, four shy of inducing a running clock. Belle Bramer finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, Grasty had 12 and Casey Brennan highlighted the team’s defensive performance.
“Casey Brennan is definitely our defensive quarterback and always in the right place at the right time,” Quilici Giles said. “She’s got a high basketball IQ, especially on defense and helps everyone rotate to where they need to be. Jeanette said it best that Casey is always in help, but it’s never too much or too little. She gives you the exact help you need without her getting out of position.”
Bramer and Steiner also were pivotal to the defensive performance, with Steiner recording two steals and a block in the first quarter. The 6-foot-1 freshman is a big reason why the Wildcats probably won’t go another 40 years in between CCS championships.
After a standout season on the Wildcats girls volleyball team, Steiner transitioned nicely to basketball, producing a couple of 20-plus rebound games in December. Steiner said the team really started gaining confidence after a huge comeback to beat a highly-rated Evergreen Valley team, 50-49, on Dec. 11.
“That’s when I knew how much more potential we had and that is when we really started going up in our team play,” she said.
Steiner grew up playing basketball, baseball, soccer, track and field and volleyball, excelling in all five sports. She set records along the way, a byproduct of growing up with two older siblings, Katie and Trent. The three are all actively involved in sports and Nicole always wanted to compete against Trent in everything since he was three years older.
Los Gatos got the job done on and off the court this season. The team’s 3.882 GPA was tops among all the girls basketball teams in the section, and second overall among all winter sports teams. On the court, Quilici Giles pushed all the right buttons, the players executed and played with enthusiasm, and the result was a section championship.
Since winning CCS was the main goal, any victory that Los Gatos picks up in NorCals is a bonus.
“Now everything else is just extra and whatever kind of run we can make is icing on top,” Quilici Giles said.
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com
