Shadow Hills (Indio, CA) girls basketball thrashes way to Section 7 Crest Insurance Group bracket title

Shadow Hills, one of the more underrated high school girls basketball programs in Southern California, absolutely dominated the Crest Insurance Group bracket last weekend for a Section 7 title.

The Knights emerged atop a pack of 16 West Coast teams, the majority of them prominent basketball programs in their areas, winning every game by at least 24 points.

Presenting your Section 7 @CrestInsurance Bracket Champions. Congratulations Shadow Hills. 🏆 #Section7 | #WhereTalentMeetsOpportunity pic.twitter.com/9NOWeBnp9V

They beat Mica Mountain (AZ) 53-29, Campbell Hall (CA) 61-31, Mojave (NV) 62-38, and Mountain View (AZ) 57-32 across Friday and Saturday, June 13-14. Other California teams in the Crest Insurance Group bracket were Birmingham and Rancho Cucamonga.

Shadow Hills has gone 49-11 over the last two seasons, making the first round of the CIF-SS 2AA playoffs in 2024 and the 2A quarterfinals this past season. The Knights also went 27-5 and made the Southern Section 3AA finals in 2021-22. But they don't always get the attention and recognition they deserve simply due to geography being hours east of the rest of Southern Section in Indio.

Last year, five of Shadow Hills' six top scorers were underclassmen. That includes rising juniors Analiah Cardona, who averaged 19.8 PPG shooting 46% FG and 37% 3FG, and Skylah Archer, who averaged 13.7 PPG and led the team in rebounding (7.2 RPG), steals (4.1 SPG), field goal percentage (57%), and two-point field goal percentage (62%). If Section 7 was any indication, Shadow Hills is bound to build on last season's success in the 2025-26 season.