O’Dowd advances to NorCal final
Anybody who is anybody in Oakland basketball circles jammed into Laney College on Tuesday night to see if Bishop O’Dowd would represent. But the Dragons weren’t just representing Oakland. They were the only Bay Area team left in bigboy basketball, better known as the CIF Open Division.
“We couldn’t lose,” O’Dowd coach Lou Richie said. “No, really, we couldn’t lose, or else.”
Senior point guard Elijah Hardy didn’t let that happen, scoring nine of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter as the second-seeded Dragons pulled out a tenacious and wildly entertaining 61-58 victory over third-seeded Modesto Christian.
Hardy, a 6-2 senior signed to Washington, made every sort of shot imaginable — floaters, hanging spin shots, threepointers. He also had nine rebounds and five assists as O’Dowd (27-5) moved into Saturday’s Northern California final at 8 p.m. at Santa Clara University against fourth-seeded Sheldon-Sacramento (28-5), a 64-55 winner over eighthseeded Folsom (26-6), which upset top seed Salesian-Richmond in the first round.
“It wasn’t just me,” Hardy said. “We all want this so badly, to get to the state championship, like when we were freshmen.”
Brenden Patrick, a 6-foot junior, had 12 big points, Utahbound Naseem Gaskin added 11 and 5-9 guard Ross Williams hit two three-pointers in the second quarter and had a couple of big rebounds down the stretch.
Perhaps the biggest shot down the stretch came after Hardy made a hanging layup with 3:20 to go. William Chavarin, a 6-3 junior, first grabbed a big defensive rebound, dribbled the length of the court and made a remarkable floating righthand bank shot from the left of the key to put O’Dowd up 61-55.
“I was practicing that shot at 3 p.m. today,” Chavarin said. “You practice and it pays off.”
Modesto Christian’s (29-4) Junior Ballard (17 points), an impressive 6-3, 195-pound guard, responded immediately with a three-pointer to cut it to 61-58 with 1:28 left.
Neither team could capitalize on offense on two possessions, Chavarin went to the line for a one-and-one with nine seconds left. He missed and after a Crusaders’ rebound and timeout Ballard let fly a 38-footer just past halfcourt because he thought he was fouled (the Dragons had a foul to give).
No foul was called. The ball caromed out of bounds, O’Dowd inbounded and the Dragons advanced.
Palo Alto 54, Menlo School-Atherton 47:
Max Dorward had 22 points, Bryan Jefferson 12 and Paul Jackson eight as the host and eighth-seeded Vikings (26-3) held on to defeat surging Menlo (25-4), the 13th seed, in Division 1. Menlo got 18 points from Thomas Brown and eight points and 10 rebounds from Riley Woodson. Palo Alto will play second-seeded Las Lomas-Walnut Creek (30-3), 84-70 winners over Mitty. In that game, Nathan Robinson had 25 points and Robert Prince 24 for Las Lomas. Devin Payne (17 points) and Jason Holman (12) also had big games for the winners. Devan Sapp had 22 points and Riley Grigsby 16 for third-seed Mitty (13-17).
St. Mary’s-Stockton 67, Campolindo-Moraga 65:
St. Mary’s rallied in the fourth quarter to earn a spot in the Division 2 finals, where it faces top seed Alameda (27-5), a 66-60 winner over fifth-seed Grant-Sacramento (23-11). Carter Mahaney led the Cougars (21-11) with 28 points and David Ahazie added 16. Carson Simi had 28 points and Johnson 20 for St. Mary’s.
Pleasant Valley-Chico 74, University 56:
The visiting and third-seeded Red Devils (31-4) went cold in the fourth to lose in Division 3 to secondseeded Pleasanton Valley (30-2). Spencer Spivy led University with 26 points and Julian Manyika added 17.
Stuart Hall 72, Liberty Ranch-Galt 57:
Nigel Burris scored 20 points and pulled down six rebounds to help lead the Knights (22-11) over the Hawks (26-6) in Division 4 at Kezar Pavilion. Miles Amos scored 16 points and Alex Byrd scored 14 off the bench for Stuart Hall. Jay Henry Ryan added 11. The Knights advance to the title game to face third-seed St. Mary’s-Berkeley (19-14) a 69-59 winner at West Campus-Sacramento.