Kitty White and Maya Saibel scored in double digits as the Redwood High girls basketball team shook off a sluggish start with a big second half en route to a 50-19 home win against Branson on Wednesday night.

Redwood led 5-4 after the first quarter and 19-11 at the half before pulling away in the third quarter. White led the way with 13 points and Saibel scored 11.

Top-seeded Redwood (19-8) faces No 2. Marin Catholic (17-10) for the MCAL title at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Terra Linda High. MC defeated San Marin 50-39 in the other semifinal.

Izzy McFadden paced the Wildcats with 15 points. Delaney Butler and Brianna Nottingham both scored 11 points for San Marin. The full story for that game can be found online at marinij.com/sports and will run in Friday’s print edition.

Redwood got nine points from Rachel Towns and limited Branson to 3 of 33 on 3-pointers on Wednesday. Avery Myerberg paced the Bulls with seven points.

The Giants have beaten MC twice this season, winning 54-46 at MC’s LadyCat Classic tournament on Dec. 7 before winning the MCAL regular-season meeting against MC 58-52 on Jan. 21. Kitty White scored the go-ahead basket inside the final two minutes as Redwood rallied late to beat MC in the league meeting.

MA falls in semifinals

Junior Sterling Colpitts and the Wildcats battled hard inside, but could not stop top-seeded University, which ran away with the game in the second half for a 55-34 victory over host Marin Academy in Wednesday’s Bay Counties League West semifinals.

Colpitts finished with a team-high 10 points and 15 rebounds for fourth-seeded Marin Academy (15-11). Wildcats senior Alexia Schwaegler, with six points, was named to the all-tournament team. Freshman guard Penelope Lee had nine points for the Wildcats, while Navah Higuera-Bailey added six and Amelia Thomas had three.

“I’m excited by the way our team is competing right now,” Marin Academy head coach Kelly Thomas said. “I anticipate we’ll get a mid-range seeding for NCS, and we might end up punching above our weight in Division IV.”

Senior Kate Kennedy led the Red Devils with 16 points, while Olivia Soenens added 13, and junior Anna Beischer finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds.

After a sluggish start to the game, the Red Devils emerged with a 16-15 lead at halftime, despite a seesaw battle in the second quarter. Soenens keyed an 8-0 University run to start the second quarter, and the Red Devils never looked back.

University (16-9) advances to Saturday’s title game against No. 3 Lick-Wilmerding, which took down No. 2 San Domenico 59-51 in the other semifinal. The Tigers built a 34-18 led at halftime but Carly Amborn kept San Domenico (13-14) within reach by scoring 13 points in the third quarter.

The BCL boys and girls championships will both be held at Marin Catholic.

Girls soccer

Thursday’s MCAL semifinals — Branson at Redwood and Marin Catholic at Tam — were both still on at press time but could be pushed to Friday due to the expected inclement weather.