MORAGA, Calif. — For the Campolindo Cougars to open their 2021 season with a win over Salesian in a rematch of last year’s NorCal semifinal would have been impressive by itself. To do it with two of their starters out injured, even moreso.
But to play without Aidan Mahaney and Logan Robeson and manage to beat the Pride convincingly? Unthinkable.
Yet that’s exactly how they did it, never trailing after the opening minute and rolling to a 66-50 victory in the season opener for both teams.
“There’s a lot of ways I thought this game might go, but I didn’t expect it to be that,” Campolindo head coach Steven Dyer said. “We’ve actually lost our first game of the year the last two years in the NorCal Tip-Off. We try to schedule a tough game for our first game out, and I was impressed with the result.”
Campolindo (1-0) knocked down 11 3-pointers and had four scorers in double-digits, with Emmanuel Callas and Cade Bennett sharing high honors with 19 points apiece. Bennett and his older brother, Chase, answered a quick 7-0 Salesian run by scoring the final five points of the first half, with Chase knocking down a three and Cade hitting a long jumper at the buzzer to send the Cougars into the break up 35-22.
Callas scored the first five of the third quarter before a Shane O’Reilly offensive rebound set up the younger of Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett’s two sons for his second 3-pointer of the night, opening up a 21-point lead and prompting Salesian head coach Bill Mellis to call timeout.
“We haven’t had any scrimmages. This was literally our first time against another opponent, and it’s a very good opponent,” Mellis said. “We’re a work in progress, and we’re just going to continue to get better and grow from this.”
The Pride did score the next seven points, with Dante Sawyer dishing out a pair of assists before scoring in the paint, but five more Cade Bennett points pushed the lead to 48-29. Salesian (0-1) did get the final nine points of the third quarter, all on Austin Johnson threes, to cut the lead to 12 entering the fourth. Johnson led the visitors with 12 points, all coming from beyond the arc.
“We expect big things from him this year, not being overshadowed by all those seniors we had last year,” Mellis said of the junior guard, who’s been on the varsity team since his freshman year.
Lucky Hampton would score the first basket of the fourth quarter to make it an 11-0 run and cut the lead to 50-40, but Cade Bennett dished one of his five assists out to his older brother on the next possession for a three. Callas answered a pair of Jeremiah Jones free throws with his final five points of the night before assisting on an O’Reilly 3-pointer for the last of his five assists.
“I’m playing within myself and with my teammates better, knowing not only what I can do but what my teammates are good at,” Callas said.
Despite the long offseason and absence of two starters, the Cougars looked completely in sync on Saturday evening, with a mix of sophomores, juniors and seniors all factoring in. With Robeson out due to a hip injury, O’Reilly, whose older brother, Matt, played at Bucknell, was the most prominent sophomore for Campolindo, and he scored 13.
Chase Bennett hit three 3-pointers to finish the night with 11, joining his brother, O’Reilly and Callas in double figures.
“Pretty much everyone can knock down threes,” Callas commented.
Mahaney, rated as a four-star recruit by 247 Sports, is expected to return from his ankle injury next week, though Robeson’s absence could last through the end of the month.
Jones scored 11 for Salesian and Sawyer finished with nine. 6-foot-10 San Diego State commit Demarshay Johnson Jr. scored just four, but he did collect 10 rebounds and a block.
