In only its 5th yr. the Cardinal Newman Classic has already turned into the best early season Girls HS basketball tournament in Northern California. In its first 4 yrs. the CN Classic has hosted some GREAT HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS and some GREAT HIGH SCHOOL PLAYERS:
A’shanti Coleman (Sacred Heart/Boise St) Limar’i Thomas (Sacred Heart/Cincinnati)
Haley Van Dyke (Campolindo/Wash) Neenah Young (St Mary’s Stockton/Harvard)
Aarion McDonald (Brookside Christian/Arizona) *currently leading the NCAA in scoring
Sirena Tuitela (Pleasant Valley/Colorado) Aquira DeCosta (St Mary’s Stockton/Baylor)
Naje Murray (St Mary’s Stockton/San Diego St) RyAnne Walters (Sac High/UCSB)
Ariel Johnson (St Mary’s Stockton/Florida) Cierra Walker (Oregon City /Vanderbilt)
Kennedi Villa (St Mary’s Berkeley/San Diego St) Carolyn Gill (St. Mary’s Berkeley/Fullerton St)
And this year’s tournament promises to keep the tradition alive.
The teams looking to battle it out for the crown:
Bishop O’dowd: 3 California State titles in last 9 yrs. (including the OPEN state title in 2013), current 100 game league winning streak, and had the honor of receiving 6 CIF OPEN bids in the last 7 yrs. The 2013 team ended up ranked #1 team in country. The program has produced multiple McDonald All Americans.
Cosumnes Oaks: Finished 25-6 last season. Started as a D4 program and due to immense recent success has steadily moved up by the San Joaquin Section (SJS) to D1 this year. They return most of their players and are looking to make noise in both the SJS D1 sections and CIF state tournament.
Eastside Prep: One of the most successful small school programs in California. Over the last 4 yrs. they have won 2 D5 State titles and had 1 D5 State runner up. ESP is well coached, disciplined, play extremely hard and are always a tough out.
Encinal: Young talented team with high expectations. Encinal won a D3 section playoff game last year and are looking to make an even deeper run in the North Coast Section (NCS) D3 and CIF State playoffs this season.
Menlo Atherton: This Central Coast Section (CCS) power has had quite a run over the last two yrs. combining for 50 wins. After playing in the CCS OPEN sections 2 yrs ago they finished as the CCS D1 runner-up last season and have earned a CIF state playoff bid both yrs.
Regis Jesuit (Colo): RJ has been nationally ranked in 12 of the last 14 yrs. They currently are ranked #23 nationally by USA TODAY. They have 3 Colorado state championships in the last 8 seasons. They are led by 6’1 Francesca Belibi (Stanford) who was a member of the 2018 USA U17 GOLD MEDAL winning team in the world championships.
Sacred Heart Cathedral (SHC): SHC returns 2 starters off of last season’s Calif D1 State runner up team. It was Sacred Heart’s 2nd state championship game in the last 3 seasons (winning the D3 title in 2016). SHC won the CN Classic title in 2016.
Cardinal Newman (HOST): Over the last 3 seasons CN has 1 State Championship (D4 2016) and had the honor of receiving 2 CIF OPEN bids. CN has won 88 games over those 3 seasons. They currently have a 73 game league winning streak.
Games start at 4pm on (Thurs) Nov. 29th
4:00PM: SHC vs. Eastside Prep
5:30PM: Bishop O’dowd vs Consumnes Oaks
7:00PM: Cardinal Newman vs Encinal
8:30PM: Regis Jesuit vs Menlo Atherton
WATCH GAMES LIVE: