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The Berkeley High School Girls Basketball team won the North Coast Section Division I Championship for the second year in a row on Saturday at the Oracle Arena.  

They defeated Deer Valley High School of Antioch by a score of 62-45.  

Team co-captian Tiffany Hamasaki said that after Coach Gene Nakamura retired after winning the championship last year, the players worked hard to maintain the level of play he instilled.  

“They didn’t think we could do it, but we proved to our audience that we can do it without him, we proved it to our coaches, and most of all we proved it to ourselves,” Tiffany said. “The NCS championship game against Deer Valley was more on a personal level for the team because we lost to them earlier in the season. After being down the whole first half and an inspirational half-time talk, we knew we couldn’t lose this one. We’ve made it this far despite the doubt in us, and we weren’t going home without the win.”  

She credited new Head Coach Cheryl Draper and assistant coaches Anna Johnson and Leroy Hurt for keeping up the intensity all season.