Bishop McNamara wins top division: 8 takeaways from Nike TOC 2025 girls basketball tournament

Lance Smith

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Bishop McNamara wins top division: 8 takeaways from Nike TOC 2025 girls basketball tournament image

Steven Branscombe/ Imagn

The Nike TOC high school girls basketball tournament lived up to the hype once again in 2025.

In the Vincent Cannizzaro Division, Bishop McNamara, Long Island Lutheran, and Archbishop Mitty all lived up to the lofty expectations placed upon them by the outside world and affirmed their status as national championship frontrunners.

MORE: Long Island Lutheran is No. 1 in SN's national rankings (Dec. 22)

Finest Basketball Cresset stole the show with some big upsets to win the Clare Droesch Division.

And the middle/lower divisions, while not relevant to national rankings, were packed with great games and storylines.

Here are eight takeaways from the girls side of Nike TOC 2025:

Despite two losses, Bishop McNamara is (once again) a national title favorite

After claiming a disputed national title in 2025 to go with a WCAC title, state title, and 30-2 record, Bishop McNamara was something of an X-factor entering 2025-26 with a slew of key seniors gone but a lot of talent coming back. We had them ranked 12th in the preseason and saw them ranked several spots higher and lower by other outlets, which was understandable.

This season started just okay for the Mustangs, as they entered Nike TOC with wins over Friends' Central, Bishop Gorman, and Albertus Magnus plus a narrow loss to Long Island Lutheran and a major upset loss at the hands of St. Frances Academy. Bishop McNamara was still clearly on a shortlist of the nation's top teams but already nearly out of the national title race.

Well, in one fell swoop, Bishop McNamara has thoroughly revived its national title chances by earning an honor that will be remembered for many years to come no matter what happens in the coming months: a Nike TOC crown in the highest division (Vincent Cannizzaro). The Mustangs cruised past Newcastle 56-37, handled nationally ranked San Ramon Valley 51-40, took down top-ranked Archbishop Mitty 53-50, and won 61-58 against none other than Long Island Lutheran for the title.

Bishop McNamara doesn't have a lot of room for error to win its second straight national title, but with so many wins against national competition under its belt – including two against other full-fledged frontrunners – it has a very real chance to overcome its 1-2 start. And in every regard other than winning a national championship, Bishop McNamara's season is fully back on track.

FB Cresset steals the show

If "top breakout team of TOC" were an award, Finest Basketball Cresset would've run away with it.

Due to some technicalities, FB Cresset was not officially representative of Cresset Christian Academy, thus the different moniker and placement in the Clare Droesch Division. But it was still a heck of a run for FB Cresset.

It opened with a 49-39 win against Elite Prep of Washington, which features arguably the best prospect in the country in 5-star Tennessee commit Oliviyah Edwards. It followed it up with a resounding 50-48 upset of Westtown, the bracket's top seed and heavy favorite ranked fourth in the country. From there, Cresset handled Canadian heavyweight Niagara Prep 55-43 and pulled one more upset, 50-46 over Canadian juggernaut Crestwood Prep, which was fresh off a 60-27 annihilation over lethally talented Kingdom Collegiate Academy.

What exactly this run means for Cresset Christian Academy going forward is unclear, but the program – and its FB Cresset team for Nike TOC – will definitely have a lot more eyes on it after winning the prestigious tournament.

Archbishop Mitty is nearly the best even without McKenna Woliczko; Monarchs will be scarier than ever upon her return

In a landscape where traditional high school programs compete for national titles against sports academies that have more national recruits than they can even find playing time for, it's shocking to see a real high school team with "only" two other top-100 ranked recruits stay in national title contention despite missing arguably the best player in the country

The upper ranks of high school girls basketball are surely on notice after Archbishop Mitty nearly took home the Nike TOC crown in the Vincent Cannizzaro Division despite the fact that 5-star senior F McKenna Woliczko (Iowa) isn't yet back from a knee injury she suffered in January.

The Monarchs came in ranked atop the country but were far from a heavy favorite given that their No. 1 rankings were predicated upon Woliczko's return, which might be quite soon. All year, they've proven to be a national powerhouse even without her, but it's a major win for them to come within striking distance of a Nike TOC title even without her thanks to the outstandingly talented and balanced core of Gs Ze'Ni Patterson and Tiera McCarthy, Ws Devin Cosgriff, Abi James, and Emma Cook, and P Maliya Hunter, the latter of whom was named all-tournament.

Mitty opened the tournament by blowing out Homewood-Flossmoor 55-17 and DPAC 76-44, the latter of which was a couple games removed from upsetting reigning national champion Etiwanda. Remarkably, the Monarchs played eventual champion Bishop McNamara down to a 53-50 finish in the semifinals and won by 12 points in the third place game against another national contender from Maryland in Bullis.

What Mitty has done all year without Woliczko has been a win (or more like a continuous stream of wins) in its own right. But the prospect of the two-time National Player of the Year (for her class) coming back to rejoin what's truly one of the very best teams in the country without her is now even scarier than ever.

LuHi cements status as national title heavyweight before coming up short

To be clear, there weren't many questions about whether or not Long Island Lutheran had a shot to be the No. 1 team in the country before the TOC. The Crusaders came in 4-0 with a narrow win over Bishop McNamara and a 25-point rout of St. John's, so their incredible dominance in the first three rounds – 61-28 over Fairmont Prep, 71-30 over Bartlett, and 70-49 over Bullis – wasn't much of a surprise. 

But it was still significant. After graduating the core that won a disputed national championship in 2024, LuHi was robbed of a chance last season to show how high its next generation's ceiling was/is because of injuries. This was Long Island Lutheran's first chance to prove it's roughly as good as expected, and despite the disappointing finals loss, the team did just that. From a rankings standpoint, losing to Bishop McNamara in the finals was by far the best outcome for the Crusaders behind, of course, a 4-0 performance. Because their only loss is against a team that they've also beaten, and their prior win over the Mustangs is worth much more after Bishop McNamara's title run.

Sage Hill shows its fortitude

As the top seed in the TOC's No. 2 division (not including the non-association bracket), Sage Hill was a rather heavy favorite on paper to win the Joe Smith Division.

But there's a canyon-sized gap between how basketball games go on paper versus reality. Dwelling in that gap is the concept of "should", which ignores the human element of the game.

For Sage Hill, the human element presumably made winning the Joe Smith Division one of the toughest achievements in program history, which says a lot for a program that has won a CIF-Southern Section title, a California Division I regional title, and a California Division II state title just in the last five years. The OC Register reported earlier in December that 14-year head coach Kerwin Walters, a well-liked figure in the coaching community who built Sage Hill's program up from the CIF-SS' lower divisions, is on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons and is gone for at least the rest of this season.

Try fitting the impact that'll have on a high school basketball team into a box score.

So, just weeks into the post-Kerwin Walters era, Sage Hill entered a bracket filled with state-ranked competition including a few other nationally relevant programs and went 4-0 with a target on its back. The Lightning blew out fellow Southern Section stalwart Marlborough and took down both of the CIF-San Diego Section's reigning Open Division finalists in single-digit games. They also outdueled Cherokee Trail, which is ranked first in Colorado by MaxPreps and is otherwise unbeaten with a slew of high-profile wins.

On paper, Sage Hill merely avoided upset for four games in a row. But from a basketball standpoint that includes the human element, it was a dazzling performance by the Lightning.

Brookeslee Colvin puts on memorable performance for champion Coeur D'alene

4-star junior PG Brookeslee Colvin had one of the top individual runs in recent memory at the TOC to lead Coeur D'alene to a title in the Dan Wiley Division. The Vikings' had a fantastic team-wide effort to hold all four of their opponents below 50 points, and on offense, Colvin was just Herculean.

She opened up with 41 points on 11-18 shooting to beat Liberty (Peoria) 62-22, which is a new CDA record according to the Coeur D'alene Press, and also had nine rebounds and nine steals. Colvin then had 34 points, nine rebounds, and six steals to beat Pinnacle 54-33, 34 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals to beat Cathedral Catholic 66-49, and 26 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, and five steals in the finals, a 60-44 win over Villa Park, a top-25 team in California.

Colvin's dominance and CDA's success were no surprises, but the manner in which they mercilessly dispatched stiff competition was remarkable.

Eagle, Arapahoe, Reno also win titles

Three more teams deserve a shoutout here for winning their division championship.

Eagle is now 11-1 and ranked second in Idaho by MaxPreps after winning four close games to win the John Anderson Division. The Mustangs defeated Highlands Ranch 65-57, Oakland Tech 68-55, Omaha North 62-57, and Legend 38-32.

Arapahoe came right out of the gate with a 55-54 win over a national name in Riverdale Baptist, and the team mostly just cruised to a title after that. The Warriors went on to obliterate Mesa 72-25, take down Santa Margarita 66-53, and breeze past Higley 71-51 to win the Mike Desper Division. Jaya White scored in double figures in all four games, Izzy Johnston eclipsed 10 points three times, Maria Trueman cooked up 16 points and 17 points in the middle two rounds, and Ava Budler exploded for 20 points on 7-10 shooting in the finals.

Defense was the key for Reno to winning the Derril Kipp Division. The Huskies, which are now 9-0, won 69-30 over Skyline, 34-32 over Red Mountain, 51-36 over Mountain View, and 52-46 over South (Torrance) for the crown. Amazingly, 46 points against South ties the most points anyone has scored on Reno this season.

Ontario Christian is the No. 1 team in the country

One of the very biggest winners from the Nike TOC? Ontario Christian, even though it sat the tournament out this year.

A year ago, Ontario Christian walked into the Nike TOC ranked first, looked the part through three rounds, and walked out ranked second thanks to a surprisingly lopsided loss at the hands of Archbishop Mitty.

This time, Ontario Christian was ranked second behind Mitty going into the Nike TOC –and will be ranked No. 1 in the country on Monday barring an upset loss this weekend. It wouldn't be the least bit surprising if the Knights are the unanimous top-ranked team at 14-0 with nothing but blowout wins, many of which have come against national-caliber competition. Ontario Christian also has the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic to bolster its resume before Monday rolls around.

Editorial Team