Bishop O’Dowd saves face for Bay Area
FAIRFIELD, CA – Salesian and Prolific Prep had already gone down to defeat on day two of the Crush in the Valley at Solano College when Bishop O’Dowd took the count in a game that didn’t start until almost 10:00 pm. Not only that but only about 100 of the overflow crowd there for the Prolific Prep game and the several hundred that hung around for the Salesian game that followed, stayed to watch the Dragons take on Nevada No. 5 and 2017 and 2018 3A state champion Desert Pines of Las Vegas.
For those that stayed they got their money’s worth after junior guard Taj Phillips hit a fall-back three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Dragons a 48-45 victory.
“I would agree this was a game that can give us some momentum but it was tough,” O’Dowd Coach Lou Richie remarked when asked if this was an important win. “How do you live up to a game where the whole place is packed and you walk into the arena and you can’t get a seat.”
With the score tied 45-45 Cal-bound Monty Bowser got a steal with around 20 seconds left and Richie called a time out. The Dragons inbounded with 14 seconds to go and when they couldn’t get the ball inside they kicked it back out to Phillips at the top of the key where he drained the game winner.
O’Dowd (12-7) trailed 10-8 after one quarter, 21-18 at the half and 37-33 after three quarters, but Phillips hit a second three-pointer in the fourth quarter to help complete the comeback. The two treys were his only points of the game.
Junior guard Marsalis Roberson led O’Dowd with 16 points, Bowser had seven points and 11 rebounds, and senior Ryzon Norris added seven points, including two key fourth quarter free-throws.
Desert Pines (15-7) was coming off its sixth game in six days so they could have run out of gas, hence an eight-point fourth quarter. The Jaguars were led by 6-7 junior Anthony Swift with 16 points and nine rebounds, but the Dragons basically locked down Milos Uzan. The sophomore sensation that recently received an offer from UCLA, and son of Desert Pines Coach Michael Uzan, was held to five points with none in the fourth quarter.
“Taj hit some big shots,” Richie remarked. “He had some challenges in the beginning of the year but his point guard play has really picked up.”
Richie has been looking for better production from his point guards but not necessarily for outside shooting but for penetrating to create easy baskets.
“The irony is we won the game on a three-point shot since we’re flipping it from the beginning of the season,” Richie said.
Emphasizing getting the ball inside isn’t the only big change Richie has made since the Dragons started out 5-7, albeit against some rough completion.
“The biggest change we made was I’m not making the substitutions. I wanted to get everyone in early and now that’s not always happening,” Richie continued. “We tried to have Lou Richie as the substitution maker and we had a losing record so we had to adjust. But at the same time our bench is our strength.”
Since Richie replaced himself in the substitution role the Dragons are 7-0, including a big 50-49 win over Prep2Prep NCS No. 4 Campolindo at the MLK Classic at St. Mary’s College last week.
Now, with Salesian losing to Chaminade and P2P NCS No. 2 Branson going down on Saturday night to MCAL rival Marin Catholic, it would appear Richie and his boys will likely be the new No. 1 team in the next NCS Prep2Prep rankings.
Salesian outplayed in loss to Chaminade
Despite a strong start against a Chaminade-West Hills that was coming off a Friday night overtime Mission League 91-90 loss to host Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks, and then made the trip north to Solano College for an 8:15 pm tip-off, Prep2Prep North Coast Section No. 1 Salesian-Richmond could not close the deal and an 11-game winning streak ended in a 60-50 loss to the boys from the San Fernando Valley.
Chaminade (21-5) came into the game at No. 25 in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings and Salesian was No. 15 but that will now change in favor of the Eagles who were the sharper and more aggressive team.
“They outplayed us,” said a dismayed Salesian Coach Bill Mellis. “They defended better, shot better, turned over the ball less, and pretty much beat us at every aspect of the game, and we didn’t execute thinks we worked on in practice.”
Salesian (17-4) came out strong and led 14-3 but from there the worm started to turn and the lead was cut to 16-9 after one quarter. Using a trapping, pressure defense and some outside shooting Chaminade took the lead at 22-20 on a three-pointer by junior Keith Higgins and never looked back.
Kenneth “KJ” Simpson was named the game MVP after the 6-2 junior point guard finished with 25 points, six rebounds and six steals. Down the stretch when Salesian made a late push, Simpson had six the Eagles last eight points, including two free-throws off a steal with under a minute to play that made it 58-48 and pretty much sealed the deal.
Junior guard Keith Higgins added 16 points on four three-pointers.
Not only did Chaminade shoot the ball better from the field but from the foul line as well, and got there more. The Eagles were 12 of 15 to a mere 2 of 6 for the Pride.
Salesian got a good game from power Te’Jon Sawyer but he was the only player in double-figure scoring and Chaminade held him scoreless in the fourth quarter. The 6-8 power senior forward had 22 points with two three-pointers. Senior Shane Bell added eight points with eight assists and six steals.
Despite the way the Pride played they were by no means out of the game. After falling behind 35-26 at the half they got it to 43-41 late in the third quarter, and went into the final period down 45-41, but Chaminade re-asserted itself with a 5-2 run to start the fourth and the closest Salesian would get was 50-45 before Simpson took over.
“We need to regroup,” Mellis remarked. “With as many seniors as we have we had to be better than that.”
Next up for Mellis and his Pride is a TCAL- Rock match-up on the road at St. Mary’s-Berkeley.
Prolific Prep drops a tough one
Whatever the capacity is of the Solano College gym it was not only packed to the gills but people lined the walls under each basket and several dozen kids sat on the floor in front of those standing.
They were all there to see Prolific Prep, and most of the kids were screaming for high-flying five star prospect Jalen Green do his thing. The marquee star of the Crew, and the No. 1 rated prospect in the nation by ESPN from the class of 2020, had a couple of highlight reel dunks, but the Crew came up on the short end in a 69-65 loss to Dream City Christian of Glendale, Arizona.
The 6-6 Green finished with a game-high 31 points (three three-pointers) and eight rebounds. Illinois-bound 6-10 senior Coleman Hawkins added 18 points and seven rebounds, but Texas Tech-signed senior guard Nimari Burnett has his troubles against Dream City and finished with seven points, six rebounds and three assists, but five of his points were on free-throws.
Dream City was led by senior MarJon Beauchamp with 21 points (three three-pointers). Junior Arthur Kaluma added 14 points, and 6-11 junior Alex Tchikou came off the bench and contributed big with 13 points (three three-pointers), with 10 of his points and two treys in the fourth quarter.
Prolific Prep came out strong and led 11-4 early but from there they went into a tailspin and trailed 31-23 at the half and 49-33 five minutes into the second half, but the Crew fought back and when Green found Hawkins for a dunk it was 64-63 with 1:15 left.
From there Tchikou scored, was fouled but missed the free-throw to make it 66-63. Green answered back with a basket and it was 66-65 with 48.1 seconds left but Tchikou drained a long three-pointer with 15 second to go and that closed out the scoring and sent a lot of fans home disappointed but still seeing a good show.
Jesuit overwhelms Stuart Hall
Jesuit-Carmichael junior Isa Silva came into the Crush in the Valley as the highest rated 2021 recruit in any of the high school games. Some recruiting services have him as high as No. 19 in the nation and more than one have him as No. 1 or 2 in California and all agree he’s the No. 1 point guard in Northern California.
Silva didn’t have his best game but Stuart Hall really never handled him and he finished with a game-high 19 points (three three-pointers), five assists, five rebounds and three steals in a 62-42 Jesuit victory.
Early on with Jesuit only leading 13-10 Silva got a steal and was driving in for a layup from the right side of the basket when a defender came at him from his right side so the right-handed switched the ball to his left hand and away from his body but still converted.
Jesuit junior Chris Holley added 18 points on four three-pointers.
Stuart Hall (15-6) got eight points apiece from seniors Zion DeBerry and Jay-Henry Ryan.
In other games
Berkeley (9-1) got the single-highest performance of all of the high school games played at the Crush in the Valley after senior Jamir Thomas went for 43 points and six steals in a 74-63 victory over Edison-Stockton (15-8) in the first of the seven high school games on Saturday’s schedule.
Weston Ranch-Stockton (12-10) led 29-28 at the half and took over in the second half for a 61-54 victory over St. Patrick-St. Vincent-Vallejo. The Cougars were led by the monster double-double 20 points and 19 rebounds with three blocks by senior power forward Jordahn Johnson. Mi’Son Coilton added 14 points and senior Gavin Wilburn chipped in with 11 points. St. Patrick-St. Vincent (14-8) was led by 6-11 senior center Dishon Jackson with 18 points and nine rebounds. Junior Jaden Alexander and senior Jalen Scott added 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Vanden-Fairfield was playing on the other side of the I-80 freeway from the school and they had a large crowd that was rocking after their boys won 68-61 over Sacramento. Vanden (16-6) got a game-high 16 points from juniors Agjanti Miller and Isaac Montgomery, but the player that impressed the scouts and analysts was Takai Emerson-Hardy. The 6-6 sophomore forward had a double-double 12 points and 10 rebounds with eight blocks. Sacramento (10-11) got 16 points from senior Miles Lewis, 13 points from senior Peter Gwanaji and 11 points (three three-pointers) from senior Micah Scott Kelly.
Modesto Christian (14-7) trailed early, then went on a 20-5 run to take a 51-37 third quarter lead, but from there the roof caved as Nevada Coronado-Henderson outscored the Crusaders 43-15 from that point on in an 80-66 victory by the boys from just south of Las Vegas. Coronado (14-6) got a huge 39 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists from the No. 1 player in Nevada and a very high D1 recruit, 6-4 senior guard Jaden Hardy. Senior Alex Merkviladze led Modesto Christian with 22 points and eight rebounds.
