Salesian star is grading on a much tougher scale
MORAGA >> James Akinjo has been around the proverbial block a few times, felt the highs and lows that unfold during the long high school basketball season.
So far this winter, it’s been mostly highs for the Salesian guard and his teammates.
The Pride improved to 17-1 on Monday night with a 76-62 victory over Modesto Christian in the MLK Classic at Saint Mary’s College, an impressive result given the pedigree of both programs and the visions both teams will have in March.
But for the Connecticutbound Akinjo, winning isn’t good enough. Not this season.
Aiming for the mountaintop to finish his high school career, Akinjo stood on the court Monday after scoring 35 points — the most of any player in the six-game showcase — and said his team could be better.
“It was not our A game,” Akinjo said. “We can do way better execution on offense, matching up on transition. If I had to grade this, I would say it was about a C.”
Akinjo understands how important the finer points are in big games against high-level competition, having experienced painful opening-round exits against De La Salle in each of the past two Northern California Open Division playoffs.
The postseason disappointment has been a driving force for a team that obviously has the talent and experience to play deep into March.
“Huge motivator,” Akinjo said. “That is why we work so hard every day in practice. That’s why we continue to try to get better even though we win games. We try to continue to work on things that matter in this game. It’s really big.”
It might not have been an overall A performance, but it was pretty close down the stretch, when Akinjo scored 14 of his team’s 22 points in the fourth quarter to pad the lead.
“He played well,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “Got out of a few things in the second quarter. Shot wasn’t falling. He wasn’t quite moving the ball, and then he just kind of really took over late in the game.
That was indicative of how he plays.”
Akinjo knew the importance of the game and certainly played as if the stakes were high during the key moments.
“They’re a really good team, and they’re going to be Open Division,” Akinjo said. “We just wanted to set ourselves up for a good seed in the Open Division playoffs.”
Mellis said it was just as important for his team to get better Monday as it was to gain a potential seeding advantage over Modesto Christian.
“When you play Modesto, you get better, win or lose,” he said. “That was the important thing for us. The seeding is great. The playoff implications, that’s fine. But we have to be playing better basketball in March, and they’ll be playing better basketball for sure.”
They’re No. 1
And we thought last year’s Archbishop Mitty girls basketball team was special? The Monarchs have elevated to an even higher level this season,
winning the Nike Tournament of Champions, the West Coast Jamboree and every other challenge in their path.
Mitty is 16-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps and USA Today.
In their most recent game, Monday at home against a very good Carondelet team, the Monarchs prevailed 63-49. That just about qualified as a nailbiter given Mitty’s results thus far.
Haley Jones had 33 points and 10 rebounds and Nicole Blakes finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way.
Jones, Blakes and Karisma Ortiz are averaging in double figures on the season.
Mitty visits Sacred Heart Cathedral on Saturday as it continues a journey that it hopes will end with the Open Division state championship, a title that narrowly escaped its grasp last season.
Still winning
There is feeling among the Moreau Catholic boys that they weren’t given much respect heading into
this season, with most of the attention paid to the players they lost from last season’s state finalist (i.e. Damari Milstead and Kyree Walker) and not the players coming back.
Well, Moreau isn’t bad. Not bad at all.
The Mariners improved to 11-5 on Monday with a 59-56 victory over Woodcreek-Roseville, last season’s Northern California Open Division champion.
“Our expectations were the same,” Moreau coach Frank Knight said about his team’s season forecast. “It was everybody else, the writers and everything, they looked at us about what we lost and not about what we already have. Some people thought we’d be down because of no Damari and no Kyree.
“We’ve shocked a lot of people. We still have a bunch of good guys in the locker room — 15 guys who have a chip on their shoulder because people don’t think they’re good because Kyree left. That was some bulletin board material. We’ve used it to push forward.”