Section 7 girls basketball results: Windward wins top division as California teams dominate originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
As expected, the last round of Section 7's City of Mesa bracket featured a matchup between recent high school girls basketball national champions Etiwanda – the event's three-time reigning champion – and Ontario Christian.
Except it was for third place instead of first.
At the same time Ontario Christian rolled past Etiwanda 75-49 for the bronze, Section 7's top division concluded with one of the tournament's relative underdogs – Windward – defeating four-time reigning NorCal champion Archbishop Mitty 54-46 for the ****** le. Windward had unseated Etiwanda 69-65 in the previous round after starting with a 57-51 win over Nevada powerhouse Democracy Prep Agassi Campus and a 66-58 victory against Arizona champion Millennium. Mitty made it to the finals by beating Eagle (ID) 53-44, defeating Mater Dei 67-56, and notching a 56-48 win over Ontario Christian, which beat the Monarchs 56-49 in the CIF Open Division state finals in March.
The Wildcats are led by one of the nation's premier perimeter units: 5-star junior wing Amel Cook, 4-star senior guard Charis Rainey, Princeton-bound senior combo guard Angelina Habis, who helped Harvard-Westlake win a state crown as a freshman, and six-foot-one junior Alexie Wehrle, a versatile playmaking wing/forward. They're coming off an injury-riddled 18-14 season in which they uncharacteristically finished ranked outside California's top 25. That's because Cook missed the entire season and Habis missed more than half of it between the transfer sit-out period and an injury. But Windward's core is at full-strength now, and it made the most of an opportunity to show what it can do on a national stage when healthy. That's why SN ranked the Wildcats No. 13 in the country in our way-too-early 2026-27 national rankings earlier this spring.
As expected, the last round of Section 7's City of Mesa bracket featured a matchup between recent high school girls basketball national champions Etiwanda – the event's three-time reigning champion – and Ontario Christian.
Except it was for third place instead of first.
At the same time Ontario Christian rolled past Etiwanda 75-49 for the bronze, Section 7's top division concluded with one of the tournament's relative underdogs – Windward – defeating four-time reigning NorCal champion Archbishop Mitty 54-46 for the ****** le. Windward had unseated Etiwanda 69-65 in the previous round after starting with a 57-51 win over Nevada powerhouse Democracy Prep Agassi Campus and a 66-58 victory against Arizona champion Millennium. Mitty made it to the finals by beating Eagle (ID) 53-44, defeating Mater Dei 67-56, and notching a 56-48 win over Ontario Christian, which beat the Monarchs 56-49 in the CIF Open Division state finals in March.
The Wildcats are led by one of the nation's premier perimeter units: 5-star junior wing Amel Cook, 4-star senior guard Charis Rainey, Princeton-bound senior combo guard Angelina Habis, who helped Harvard-Westlake win a state crown as a freshman, and six-foot-one junior Alexie Wehrle, a versatile playmaking wing/forward. They're coming off an injury-riddled 18-14 season in which they uncharacteristically finished ranked outside California's top 25. That's because Cook missed the entire season and Habis missed more than half of it between the transfer sit-out period and an injury. But Windward's core is at full-strength now, and it made the most of an opportunity to show what it can do on a national stage when healthy. That's why SN ranked the Wildcats No. 13 in the country in our way-too-early 2026-27 national rankings earlier this spring.
4 months ago
