Aragon’s girls varsity basketball team (19-8 overall, 9-3 Peninsula Athletic League) took home a victory on Feb. 26, beating Hillsdale (24-2 overall, 12-0 PAL) 52-47 to win the Central Coast Section Division II Championship.
Hillsdale won the tip-off, but Aragon struck first with senior co-captain and guard Beth Parangan draining a three. Aragon built a small lead early in the first quarter, but ended up in a slump and fell below Hillsdale in just a few minutes. The rest of the half was low scoring, and Hillsdale ended the second quarter with a 17-10 lead.
The second half was quite a different story. Right off the bat, both teams traded three-pointers. The pace picked up and both teams began to convert more of their shots. Hillsdale was led by senior guard Bailey Fong and sophomore forward Jasmine Okumura, and Aragon was led by senior guard and co-captain Jordan Beaumont and senior power forward Megan Grant.
Aragon played Hillsdale twice before meeting again in CCS finals, losing 63-58 and 55-52 on Jan. 21 and Feb. 11 respectively.
“We made some minor missteps so we corrected that over the past month and we came back and we wanted it more than them,” Beaumont said. “We played the hardest we could because we really wanted a second CCS championship and we got it.”
Grant had an effective game offensively and defensively, sinking many of her shots and gaining critical rebounds for the Dons. Beaumont dominated from the three-point line and ended the third quarter with a buzzer-beater from the deep three-point range to make the score 38-33 in favor of Aragon. The game continued to be close until Aragon began to pull away from Hillsdale about halfway through the final quarter. With one minute left in the game, Hillsdale’s Fong fouled out and it was clear that the result of the game was decided.
After the game, an award ceremony was held, where Parangan won the sportsmanship award for Aragon and head coach Sam Manu won the coaches award.
The team was proud of its performance and how far it had come to claim another CCS title.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game coming in because we had lost to Hillsdale twice prior to this,” Grant said. “We knew it was gonna be a battle to the end. We knew it was gonna be a dogfight. I’m just glad it ended up like this.”
Beaumont had a strong idea on why Aragon won the game.
“Our rebounding and our trust in one another really helped us set ourselves apart from Hillsdale [as well as] our composure and poise we had,” Beaumont said.
Another contributor to the successful game was the team’s perseverance.
“I think it was heart,” Grant said. “Coming in we knew it was gonna be hard and we all prepared ourselves. We worked hard, and we wanted it more.”
On March 1, Aragon’s season came to a close as they lost 68-49 to McClatchy High School (20-6 overall, 11-1 Metropolitan Conference) in the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Division II girls basketball regionals.
