There was no upset on NBL Championship Night, which is the way it should have been.
The Cardinal Newman Girls and Windsor Boys, who have dominated the 2016 local basketball season, put an exclamation point on things with double-digit wins.

GIRLS—Cardinal Newman 54 Santa Rosa 40
Cardinal Newman can thank Santa Rosa for one thing and that is they gave them a push in the fourth quarter. That is the first time that has happened in a NBL Game to Cardinal Newman in two years and the experience should help in the North Coast Section Playoffs.
With 6:30 minutes to go Cardinal Newman had a 44-37 lead and Santa Rosa had the ball. Santa Rosa missed a shot and Maiya Flores started a game cinching 6-0 run with a three and the brief scare was over. Flores would later hit two free throws to give her a game high 11 points.
Even though it was fairly close, the game was never really in jeopardy for Cardinal Newman. They took the lead for good on a basket by Taylor Hextrum with a minute to go in the first quarter to make it 11-10. Cardinal Newman’s biggest lead was 40-26 with 1:20 to go in the third quarter.
To Santa Rosa’s credit, they hung in there and kept it a game and that was despite leading scorer Emily Codding basically be taken out of the game. Several people guarded her, but it was mainly Avery Cargill, who wouldn’t let her get the ball. Codding did score a team high 11 points, but only attempted one three point shot and missed it. It was the second game of the season that she didn’t hit a three.
Cardinal Newman has run up some one sided scores. Part of the reason for that is the forgotten part and that is defense. They forced 12 Santa Rosa turnovers in the first half, while Cardinal Newman only had two, which is another reason it was amazing Santa Rosa hung around.
This was the offensive flash kind of game for Cardinal Newman. This was the kind of game where the phrase, “doing the little things” comes into the play. The defense was stifling and most of the time Santa Rosa was limited to one shot as Cardinal Newman controlled the defensive boards. This wasn’t a foul dominated game, but Cardinal Newman took advantage of what they got, hitting 12 of 15 at the line.
Defense wasn’t all Cargill did. She also scored ten points as did Hailey Vice-Neat.
Codding’s 11 points was a high for Santa Rosa. She did get a double-double, pulling down a game high 14 rebounds. Mireya Lopez added eight for Santa Rosa.
Cardinal Newman has won the NBL Post Season Tournament three straight years, beating Santa Rosa in the championship game each time.
Santa Rosa falls to 17-11 and will wait for a call on Sunday for a berth in the Division 1 playoffs. They are keeping their figures crossed for a home game.
Cardinal Newman goes to 24-4 and has an eleven game winning streak. On Sunday, they are hoping for the No. 1 seed.
Either way they go into the playoffs with the knowledge that if the offense isn’t working, they can win in other ways.
BOYS—Windsor 52 Cardinal Newman 38
This was a weird game in that there wasn’t much scoring in the first part of any quarter except the fourth. Windsor would make up for it in the second half of each quarter.
An example of that was the first quarter. Actually it was more than the first part. Five minutes into the quarter it was a 2-2 tie. Gabe Knight then hit a three and Windsor took the lead for good. That actually started a run after which,  they weren’t threatened again. Windsor scored the last 12 of the quarter, seven of them by Brent Tucker, which was most of his ten point game.
That three by Knight also started his scoring night that would end with a game high 19.
The rest of the game was waiting for Cardinal Newman to make a run, a run that never came. The closest they got the rest of the way was eight and that came with 1:50 left in the half. That was spurred by Guard Connor Rubattino who scored ten straight Cardinal Newman points during the run. That was most of his 12 point game.
Seth Doolittle led Cardinal Newman with 13, scoring ten of them in the second half. The Windsor lead in the second half was under ten once, that was at 37-28 with 6:30 left. Windsor scored the next six, the last three on a three pointer from NBA range by Knight to put the game away.
There was one unfortunate moment. On a night the Windsor fan base was given the award as the best fans of 2016, one of their own appeared to embarrass them by firing a bottle from the crowd in the last twenty seconds. The whole Windsor fan base shouldn’t be judged because of one idiot (heck it might not even have been a Windsor student), but that should never happen. It is too bad somebody didn’t point out who did the foolish thing.
It is the first time the Windsor has won the NBL post season tournament since realignment.  When they were in the SCL they won in once in 2007.
As for the recap, the next few lines are similar to the Girls.
Windsor has won seventeen straight and are 25-3 on the season. They are hoping for a No. 1 seed for the Division 2 playoffs.
Cardinal Newman drops to 19-9 and are hoping for a home game.
NCL I
Tonight is championship night for them at Mendocino College in Ukiah.
In first round play the Girls had an upset. Angel Bernardi almost had a triple-double with 29 points, ten rebounds and six assists as Cloverdale defeated Kelseyville 55-41. Cloverdale outscored Kelseyville 17-0 in the third quarter to take control.
In the other semi-final Middletown defeated Clear Lake 49-37 and will meet Cloverdale at 5:30 for the tournament championship. The win gives Middletown the league’s automatic bid for the NCS playoffs.
The Boys championship game will be Cloverdale against Fort Bragg, which will begin as soon as the Girls are finished.
NCL II
There is a tie for the Boys as both St. Vincent and Roseland Prep University won its finish regular season game. The two will meet today at 6 pm to decide the league’s automatic bid to the NCS playoffs.
A note about this game. I got an email saying the game would be a Sheppard Elementary School. It says in the PD it will be at Roseland University Prep. If you can confirm where it is at let us know and we will post it on our Facebook and Twitter Page.
IT IS THE SONOMA COUNTY LEAGUE TURN TONIGHT
AT SRJC
GIRLS—No. 1 Analy (17-10) vs. No. 2 Sonoma Valley (19-8)…6:30
BOYS—No. 1 Analy (20-7) vs. No. 3 Petaluma (18-8)…8 pm
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net