CONCORD – When star Archbishop Mitty forward McKenna Woliczko fell to the ground and clutched her right knee with 5:30 left in the second quarter of the Monarchs’ game against Ontario Christian on Saturday afternoon, the packed gym at Carondelet went silent.
After being examined by medical personnel for several minutes, the best girls basketball player in the Bay Area was helped off the court by her father, Aaron, and did not reappear on the sidelines at any point in the second half of Mitty’s 61-44 loss.
The severity of the injury is unknown. Longtime Mitty coach Sue Phillips said her team is still coming to grips with the junior’s injury.
“There were a lot of tears on the bench.” Phillips said.
Mitty, which had not lost a regular season game since December 2022, had started the season 9-0. The Monarchs routed Ontario Christian, then No. 1 nationally, two weeks ago in a tournament championship game in Arizona.
A fourth consecutive berth in the state Open Division title game as NorCal’s unquestioned top team appeared to be a certainty.
But without Woliczko, the two-time Bay Area News Group player of the year, for the majority of the game and most likely for the foreseeable future, Phillips said other players will need to step up if the Monarchs are to stay on course.
Mitty entered Saturday’s game ranked No. 1 in the nation, Ontario Christian No. 2.
Ze’Ni Patterson, a sophomore transfer from Heritage in Brentwood, shouldered a larger responsibility after Woliczko’s injury. She scored a team-high 14 points.
“Prayers up for McKenna,” Patterson said. “I feel like our team played well just trying to push through our feelings and emotions.”
How Mitty, which still features other high-level talent such as Devin Cosgriff and Tee McCarthy, will play going forward is yet to be determined, according to Phillips.
“We don’t know (yet), but we just know we’ve got to look at the film and figure out where we need to specifically shore up some things,” Phillips said.
Despite losing an irreplaceable talent like Woliczko, the Monarchs stayed competitive into the second half even after the forward went down with the San Jose private school held a 19-17 lead.
On the Ontario Christian side, top-ranked sophomore Kaleena Smith scored a game-high 23 points on an array of dizzying dribble-drives and difficult jump shots. Freshman Tati Griffin had 14 and 6-foot-7 freshman center Sydney Douglas scored nine points and blocked a handful of shots.
Mitty stayed in the game until the final period. The Monarchs trailed just 42-40 after three quarters as freshman forward Maliya Hunter made two three-pointers and Cosgriff and Emma Cook each had five points.
But the Monarchs couldn’t keep Ontario at bay forever, and missing Woliczko’s unstoppable mid-post and interior bucket-getting, the Monarchs couldn’t keep up and scored just four fourth quarter points.
“We had great spurts, but obviously we were missing a huge component to our team as we were trying to find out way, and we did at times,” Phillips said. “We did a terrific job of competing and fighting back. We just couldn’t sustain it.”
Archbishop Mitty plays at Valley Christian on Tuesday as it opens West Catholic Athletic League play.
