SAN FRANCISCO — After posting losing records in league play for three consecutive seasons, the Urban Blues showed that they’re not messing around in 2020.
They opened BCL West play on Wednesday night with a 63-55 win over Lick-Wilmerding, leading by as much as 18 in the process before the hosts cut the lead to four down the stretch in what would turn out to be Urban’s first win at Bothin Gymnasium since 2017.
“It’s great,” Blues head coach Joe Skiffer said. “It’s a tough place to play, and an Eliot (Smith)-coached team, they always claw their way back into the game.”
Sure enough, the Tigers did claw their way back, trailing 49-31 in the third after an Andrew Christine 3-pointer but cutting the lead all the way down to 57-53 with just over two minutes left on a three by Allen Wilson, the last of the senior’s team-high 21 points. The Blues would finish things off, though, getting a key offensive rebound from 5-foot-7 point guard Bryce Smith, who split a pair of free throws and the dagger on a corner three from Gavin Lee, who connected four times from long range on the night.
“We have a lot of confidence in our role players,” Smith said. “We know they’re going to hit shots if they’re open.”
With Lick-Wilmerding (13-4, 0-1 BCL West) trying to do everything possible to contain Smith, who made his first nine free throw attempts on the night before finally missing one with 1:43 left en route to a game-high 22 points, and keeping Jaydon Aquino away from the ball, the opportunity presented itself for Lee, whose last three of his 12 points put the game away.
Just as role players had finished the game for Urban (11-4, 1-0), it was role players who staked the visitors out to a big lead in the first place. Freshman center Siraj Saker scored eight of his nine points in the first quarter and had four of his game-high 11 rebounds in the game’s opening minutes as well, giving the Blues a much-needed presence in the middle that they had lacked in prior years.
I’m just trying to show everyone what I can do, first league game of my career,” he said.
The mix of Saker and Dane Bloom in the middle has been key for the Blues, letting forward Ryan Pescherine go into a more all-around role instead of having to play as an undersized post. In typical fashion, Pescherine had seven points, six rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
“We like him to be able to roam around,” Skiffer said. “Having a big in allows him to get more flexibility on the defensive end.”
The Tigers did get the first eight points of the second quarter, including threes by Wilson and Morgan Harris to take a 19-17 lead, but Urban closed the half on an 18-3 run as Smith scored nine in the quarter and Lee banked in the first of his 3-pointers. Out of the break, the Blues went up 16 on another Lee 3-pointer, then continued to widen the lead with a 9-2 run, capped off by Christine’s second three, one of nine the team made on the night.
Faced with the prospect of a blowout loss at home, Lick-Wilmerding dug in to make a game of it with the combination of Harris, Wilson and Riordan transfer Evan Wallis, who combined for 47 of the team’s 55 points. Wallis, a sophomore who sat out his team’s first 10 games due to transfer rules, scored half of his 14 in the quarter, including the final basket as the Tigers closed the third on an 8-0 run. They’d keep that pace up in the fourth despite Lee answering one of Wilson’s five 3-pointers, shaking off the brief setback to cut the lead to 54-48 on a Colly Urdan lay-in after the sophomore had spent much of the night in foul trouble.
“We were just exhausted,” Lick-Wilmerding said. “We had to exert so much energy on defense, trying to catch up. Their experience and execution put us away.”
After Lee’s 3-pointer, Smith fittingly closed the game out at the line, where he sank two free throws with 12.7 left and made 11 of 12 attempts for the evening.
Lick-Wilmerding hosts Marin Academy (5-8, 0-1) on Friday night while Urban travels to Stuart Hall (11-4, 0-1).
Girls: Lick-Wilmerding 55, Urban 38
Flustered with Urban’s energy at the start of the game, the Lick-Wilmerding Tigers understood what it was like to play with a target on their backs, taking the lead by the end of the third quarter and outscoring the Blues 20-4 in the fourth for a 55-38 win.
“A lot of our mistakes were being dictated off of their energy,” said sophomore guard Annabel Schneiberg, who scored a game-high 24 points in the win. “That’s their forte when they come and play us, and we were forcing things in the first half. The focus at halftime was just getting back into what we do and taking a deep breath.”
Schneiberg scored seven in the third quarter, including the last five to answer five points by Rain Sheh to put Lick-Wilmerding (12-1, 1-0) ahead 35-34. A putback by Caitlyne Mar briefly gave Urban (8-7, 0-1) the lead to open the fourth, but four more points by Schneiberg would put the hosts firmly in control. The Blues wouldn’t score again until another Mar putback with 47.3 left, by which time the Tigers had gone on an 18-0 run that proved to define the entire game. A Daisy Maunupau putback made it 46-36 as the hosts dominated the paint in the fourth.
“Daisy was a huge impact,” head coach Daniel Tesfai said.
In addition to Schneiberg’s 24 points against a box-and-1 defense, the hosts got 12 from sophomore point guard Dominique Cabading and eight from Maunupau. Sheh had 12 to lead Urban while center Elle Perkins scored 11 in the first half, knocking down a trio of 3-pointers.
