Santana High School’s girls basketball team dropped its opening game of the 2021-22 winter sports season, 40-39, in double overtime to El Capitan High School. Since then, the Lady Sultans have been perfect.
Santana defeated host Hilltop, 42-23, in a non-league game Monday to extend its current winning streak to five games. The Santee school carved up a 4-0 run to capture the championship title of the Maranatha Christian tournament Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.
Santana defeated Preuss UCSD, Castle Park, Clairemont and Orange Glen to win the tournament title. The Lady Sultans topped Orange Glen, 25-19, in last Saturday’s championship game.
“The girls have come together,” SHS head coach Mark Tipton said. “We’ve been playing very good defense. We haven’t given up 100 points in our last five games. The girls are playing without our center.”
Bella Temy led Santana with 15 points in Monday’s win over Hilltop (2-6) while Aly DePhilippis chipped in with nine points. Raeya Bristol dropped in eight points to help cement the victory.
Tipton said Bristol, a junior, is “the motor that helps our car go.”
“Our expectations are to get into the playoffs and have a home playoff game,” explained Tipton, who has coached boys and girls high school basketball for 30 years.
The Lady Sultans will be vying for the Grossmont Valley League title this season against West Hills, Valhalla, El Cajon Valley, Granite Hills and Steele Canyon.
West Hills is off to a 3-0 start in non-league play while Valhalla is 4-2 and Granite Hills and El Cajon Valley are both 4-3 in what looks to be a competitive league.
Santana advanced to the second round of last season’s Division III playoffs.
Boys wrestling
Granite Hills, braced by 138-pound champion Collin Guffey, placed eighth at last weekend’s 41-team Jimmy Hamada tournament at La Costa Canyon High School.
The Eagles, the highest-placing San Diego region team, also had Logan Ransdell place second at heavyweight, Devon Wells place eighth at 132 pounds and Zack Waterhouse place eighth at 145 pounds.
West Hills’ Ryder Dearborn placed first at 160 pounds.
