Facing top-seeded Palo Alto in the CCS Division I title game in Santa Clara, No. 3 Carlmont led most of the way and withstood a late surge from the Vikings, emerging with a 66-62 victory and the first boys basketball section title in school history.

“A lot of our team, it was just like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna win this game.’ We kind of had a feeling,” said Carlmont guard Camden Ngo, who hit a clutch 3-pointer to give his team a late four-point lead.

The Scots (17-10) steadily built a fourth-quarter lead that peaked at 60-51 with 3:06 to go.

But Jorell Clark, who scored 34 points for the Vikings, drove for an and-one layup and hit a double-clutch 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut the lead to one.

All that did was set up Ngo to finish the job for Carlmont. With 32.9 seconds remaining, Ngo picked up a loose ball and launched a fadeaway 3-pointer from well beyond the arc, swishing it and drawing a foul.

Clark nailed another 3 at the top of the key with 11.6 seconds to play, but Ngo converted two free throws and Jordan Rice added another to secure the four-point win.

Ngo led Carlmont with 24 points. Franklin Kuo added 18 points for the Scots, and Jeremiah Phillips scored 14.

Stokes’ dunk seals Dougherty Valley’s third NCS title in a row >> Jalen Stokes’ thunderous fourth-quarter dunk brought the house down as top seed Dougherty Valley won its third consecutive North Coast Section championship Saturday with a 69-37 win over Redwood at Livermore High.

Stokes’ dunk, contested by Cal-bound Redwood star Semetri “TT” Carr, came during a 12-0 run that pushed the lead to 27. The celebration was on for Dougherty Valley, which said it should have been among the section’s six Open teams but instead was left to dominate Division I.

“I am not going to back down from a challenge,” said Stokes, the Dougherty Valley senior who is headed to UC Davis. “I had to finish it.”

Stokes, a high-profile transfer from Dublin, finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, a steal and a couple of dunks.

Dougherty Valley, which had never won an NCS title before 2023, got off to a strong start and led 28-21 at halftime. It then held second-seeded Redwood to 16 points in the second half.

Tyler Robbins and Alonzo Walker III finished with 15 points each for the Wildcats. Rashod Cotton Jr. added nine and Kenny Cloud had eight.

Christopher beats Westmont for CCS Division II title >> Westmont trailed Christopher virtually all of Saturday’s Central Coast Section Division II title game before going on an 11-0 run to take a four-point lead with 25.2 seconds left.

But Christopher, which had beaten the Warriors three times in the regular season, was not ready to throw in the towel. Anton Mendezona knocked down a 3-pointer to bring the Cougars within one. Then Westmont misfired on two free throws.

Junior guard Trey Caragio grabbed the ball and streaked down the court, drove the lane and scored off the glass with 2.1 seconds left to give Christopher a 51-50 win and a CCS championship Saturday at Santa Clara High.

“This year we’ve had a lot of blowouts, but those close games are what we live for,” Caragio said.

Christopher led 19-10 after the first quarter, but the Warriors made 12 3-pointers to stay in the game. Seth Reese made five and scored a game-high 19 points. Gabe Mathiesen (13 points) and Ryan Yee (11) knocked down three apiece.

Yee made two late 3s to give Westmont a 49-46 lead with 28 seconds left, but it was not enough.

Christopher (25-2) had eight players score compared to four for Westmont. Jaxen Robinson led the way with 10 as the Cougars won the school’s first CCS basketball title.

TKA outlasts Carmel in boys D-IV >> The King’s Academy trailed by five early in the fourth quarter but outscored Carmel 18-10 the rest of the way to pull out the 66-63 win on Saturday in the Central Coast Section Division IV final at Santa Clara High.

Freshman sensation Boss Mhoon led TKA with 22 points.

A 3-pointer by Claxton Ladine brought the Knights within one and a fast-break layup by Xavier Barnett gave them the lead. Carmel tied it at 56, 58 and 61 before another driving layup by Barnett put TKA ahead for good.

After a Carmel miss, Barnett ran time off the clock dribbling on the perimeter before scoring on another drive with 45 seconds left for a four-point lead.

“We needed him to step up and that’s what he did, attacking the basket,’’ TKA coach Cameron Bradford said of Barnett.

Barnett scored 16 and Ladine 11 to help the Knights win their second CCS title in the last three years.

Girls basketball

O’Dowd girls win another section title >> Bishop O’Dowd won its first NCS Division I championship since 1995, shutting down the California Grizzlies 45-34 in the title game on Saturday at San Leandro High School.

Myella Chapman scored 13 points and Madison Gordon added 10 for the Dragons. Bishop O’Dowd (19-8) has won four NCS titles in the last seven seasons, the previous three coming in Division II.

The 3-point shot can be the ultimate equalizer, something O’Dowd coach Malik McCord took note of in his preparation for the fifth-seeded Grizzlies (21-11) after seeing them take down No. 1 seed Clayton Valley in the semifinals.

So the Dragons were quick to every pass, jumped over the top of every screen and, most of the game, would not allow the Grizzlies to fire away from the arc. Bishop O’Dowd’s defense funneled ball handlers toward the 6-foot-2 Gordon in the paint.

“They shot 51 3-pointers against Clayton Valley,” said McCord, whose team allowed only four points in the second quarter. “We were going to make sure that wasn’t going to happen.”

The Dragons’ suffocating defense allowed them to gain separation and take a 24-13 lead over California into halftime that held the rest of the way.

The Dragons have allowed one team to score more than 40 points this postseason. And McCord says his team is “not even close to how good we can be.”

Mills avenges last year’s title loss with D-III crown over Notre Dame-San Jose >> In a rematch of last year’s CCS title game, Mills came back from a 10-point second-half deficit to defeat Notre Dame-San Jose 51-50 at Santa Clara High to capture the school’s second CCS title in the last three years.

“Coming off of what happened last year, we wanted it bad,” Mills point guard Riley dela Fuente said, noting the death of former coach Dave Matsu in October 2023.

Mills guard Kelly Ho scored a team-high 14 points — 12 of which came on 3-pointers during Mills’ fourth-quarter comeback. Sofia Kwan added 10 points, followed by Luna Mengel-Yoshimura with nine and dela Fuente with four.

“I’m just so happy for those kids,” Mills coach and Dave’s son, Justin Matsu, said.

Radhi Garapaty and Rio Funatsu each had 12 points for Notre Dame and Arabella Valbuena added 10.

Ho, a junior Riordan transfer, knocked in two quick 3s to open the fourth and cut the Notre Dame lead to three.

Just as it appeared Notre Dame might separate again, Mills went on a 9-0 run capped by a 3 from Ho with 1:13 left, giving Mills a 47-46 advantage, its first lead since the middle of the second quarter.

Mills strung together its three best defensive series in the final minute of the game. The Vikings forced two misses and a turnover, then Kwan and Mengel-Yoshimura knocked in two of Mills’ final four free throw attempts to ice the game.

Los Gatos girls reign atop CCS Division I >> Menlo-Atherton clawed its way out of a 24-5 deficit to push top-seeded Los Gatos Saturday night in the CCS Division I title game at Mission College, but in the end, the Wildcats’ lead proved insurmountable.

After the No. 3-seeded Bears cut the deficit to 36-30 with 2:12 to go, Los Gatos didn’t allow them to score again.

“Made it really interesting in the second half,” Los Gatos coach Sara Quilici Giles said. “It took a little bit of composure, but we came through in the end. So that was nice.”

Menlo-Atherton (19-8) had to soldier on late in the game without guard Molly Gray, who lacerated her eyebrow area in a collision with a Los Gatos player.

“She’s so tough, she wanted to keep playing,” said Menlo-Atherton coach Steve Yob, who expects Gray to return in time for the NorCal regional playoffs on Tuesday.

Ashley Childers led Los Gatos (19-8) with 15 points, and Rita Zhov added 10 more. Luisa Tava led M-A with eight points.

Joseph Dycus, Nathan Canilao, Christian Babcock, Glenn Reeves, Devin Bradshaw and Darren Sabedra contributed to this report.