High School

CIF North Coast Section girls basketball finals roundup, brackets: San Ramon Valley shines to first Open title

After three straight Open finals' defeats, Wolves put it all together with 33-point masterpiece win over top seed Acalanes; Bishop O'Dowd, Marin Catholic, St. Mary's among other champions

Mitch Stephens

San Ramon Valley girls celebrate after a truly shocking 76-43 North Coast Section Open Division title victory over top seed Acalanes at Campolindo High School.
San Ramon Valley girls celebrate after a truly shocking 76-43 North Coast Section Open Division title victory over top seed Acalanes at Campolindo High School. / Photo: San Ramon Valley High School

San Ramon Valley High School girls basketball coach John Cristiano didn't know where to begin after it was over.

The Wolves' stunning 76-43 win over top-seed Acalanes in the North Coast Section Open Division title game at Campolindo in Moraga was beyond words. Until it wasn't.

On social media, he called it the "greatest game in our program's history since we got here," he wrote.

Certainly winning wasn't startling. The two teams were certainly evenly matched, with similar scores, averages and styles. It was just that no one expected a wire-to-wire victory by that margin.

Alyssa Rudd had 23 points and 17 rebounds. Sophomoe Ella Gunderson contributed 19 points and 11 rebounds, Arly Stern contributed 13 points and seven rebounds and Kailtlyn Mills, whose Twitter handle is 2allhustle_kait, contributed 12 points.

It was just the third NCS title for the Wolves (27-3) and second since Cristiano and his son Joe took over the program in 2016-17. The other title was five years to the day, a 60-44 triumph over San Leandro in 2020. That was at Division 1.

The program has steadily risen but each of the last three years the Wolves have lost in the NCS Open title game. When three Division 1 seniors graduated, they were supposed to take a step back. Instead they've leaped all the way to the top of the NCS foodchain. By a whopping 33 points against a 27-1 squad riding a 16-game win streak.

According to Joseph Dycus of the Bay Area News Group, San Ramon Valley took leads of 12-0 early and 34-14 at halftime. "Acalanes is an incredible team, with incredible coaching staff and a classy group of kids," Cristiano shared on Twitter. "Beating that team was not easy. I'm so proud of our kids. That banner will hang in the rafters forever."

San Ramon Valley actually won a state Division 2 title in 1990 while not winning the NCS title. That team also wasn't expected to go far after losing two Division 1 players the year before.

Cristiano also told Dycus that "I just felt like the stars aligned and that we were going to get it (Saturday's game)."

Acalanes (28-2) will likely get a state Open Division bid, but coach Margaret Gartner told Dycus: "What happens after this will show our character." They had their own lofty journey on their way to Saturday's game.:

Check below for all NCS championship and third-place game results and complete brackets.

Note: All six Open Division teams advance to next week's Northern California championships, the top three teams in divisions 1-5 also advance to the regional. For the first time, third-place games were played this season.

Top seeds in heading into the tournaments were: Acalanes (Open Division), Clayton Valley Charter (Division 1), Justin-Siena (D2), St. Bernard's (D3), Encinal (D4), Cloverdale (D5) and Ferndale (D6).

Defending champions were Cardinal Newman (Open Division), Salesian (D1), Redwood (D2), Marin Catholic (D3), St. Patrick-St. Vincent (D4), San Domenico (D5) and San Francisco Waldorf (D6).

2025 NCS GIRLS BASKETBALL BRACKETS

Open Division
Pick 'Em

Championship

No. 2 San Ramon Valley 76, No. 1 Acalanes 43

Third place

No. 5 Carondelet 72, No. 4 Cardinal Newman 58

Fifth place

No. 5 Piedmont 70, No. 6 Sallesian 48

Division 1
Pick 'Em

Championship

No. 2 Bishop O'Dowd 45, No. 5 California 34

Third place

No. 6 Redwood 72, No. 1 Clayton Valley Charter 65

Division 2
Pick 'Em

Championship

No. 3 Marin Catholic 64, No. 1 Justin-Siena 55

Third place

No. 4 Moreau Catholic 48, No. 2 University 41

Division 3
Pick 'Em

Championship

No. 2 St. Mary's 50, No. 5 Dougherty Valley 39

Third place

No. 1 St. Bernard's 54, No. 6 Fortuna 29

Division 4
Pick 'Em

Championship

No. 2 Head-Royce 53, No. 1 Encinal 48

Third place

No. 5 Sonoma Valley 48, No. 3 Sonoma Academy 36

Division 5
Pick 'Em

Championship

No. 2 St. Patrick-St. Vincent 67, No. 1 Cloverdale 50

Third place

No. 5 Fort Bragg 63, No. 6 Kennedy-Fremont 57

Division 6
Pick 'Ems

Championship

No. 1 Ferndale 52, No. 2 Cornerstone Christian 51

Published
Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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