CARSON – It was hard to miss Bishop Manogue coach Carlnel Wiley before, throughout and after Saturday’s 4A North title game.
He rocked a blaring green suit that appeared to illuminate. He may want to pack it with him to Las Vegas next week.
“It’s the suit, baby,” he said after his squad dismantled Reno 65-32 for its third-consecutive regional title.
The Miners (25-2) punched their ticket to state with their 17th straight win. It was also their fifth consecutive win over the Huskies (25-5) going back to the 2015 title game.
Additionally, it was the fifth straight year Reno and Bishop Manogue played for the regional championship. Reno won the first two. Bishop Manogue has now claimed the last three – none as convincingly as Saturday.
The final 10 minutes of the game featured running clock.
“You saw it, those girls out there put that pressure on,” Wiley said. “It’s the constant, continuous pressure. I think in girls basketball, for them to do that, that’s our strategy.”
Carlnel Wiley and the Miners are already winning. pic.twitter.com/qPnaYlotv5
— Nathan Shoup (@Trib_Shoup) February 19, 2017
Senior Malia Holt took over the game early. She hit all three of her shots from beyond the arc in the first quarter and scored 13 of her game-high 24 points to help spot the Miners a 19-5 advantage after eight minutes.
Holt hit a 13-foot jumper at the first-half buzzer to put the Miners up 38-13 at the break.
“She (Holt) is the Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen,” a gleeful Wiley said.
Fellow senior Katie Turner enacted the running-clock mercy rule (35-point difference or greater) with a bucket at the two-minute mark in the third.
Turner, a Davidson commit, finished with 13 points, as did Maddie Camacho.
Wiley apologized post-game for the game reaching the 35-point threshold.
“I made a huge mistake … I don’t coach to look at the score, you’re kind of just coaching the game,” he said. “It got physical and once it gets physical, my reaction is to press. I wouldn’t have done that. As a coach, I have to apologize about that. Because in the end, it’s still about fun.”
Sophomore Kaitlynn Biassou was the only Reno player in double figures. She finished with 14 as the Huskies’ 14-game winning streak was snapped.
Bishop Manogue will wait to see who it opens with in the state tournament on Thursday at the Cox Pavillion on UNLV’s campus.
The Miners will either play Sunset champion, nationally-ranked Centennial, or Sunrise champion, Foothill, depending on the result of Tuesday’s play-in game between Spring Valley and Foothill.
“They (Vegas) teams are always tough,” Wiley said. “I think we, in the North, tend to be a little submissive to them. But hey, I’m going to come at them, they know we’re going to come at them.”
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