HAYWARD, Calif.— With the lack of experience on his roster, Menlo-Atherton head coach Mike Molieri will take wins in any fashion.
Tuesday’s 50-48 decision over Irvington was by no means a masterpiece, but it was certainly an exciting affair, one that the Bears pulled out on Connor Cadigan’s and-1 with 3.3 seconds left at the Warren Morse Shootout at Mt. Eden.
Ryan Ho’s offensive rebound and elbow jumper put Irvington (2-5) in front with 17.1 seconds left, but Cadigan took a Johno Price pass in the lane and scored through contact to put Menlo-Atherton (2-2) in front for good. He made the free throw as well. The Vikings got a solid look from half-court at the buzzer, but the shot hit the back of the rim and bounced away.
M-A was in a hole for most of the afternoon, but never trailed by more than nine. Malone Lohmann’s 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer sent the Bears into the break down 31-25, and they tied the game at 39 with 6:20 remaining on a Cadigan putback. Jon Goker’s 3-pointer gave Molieri’s team a 42-40 lead, kicking off an 8-0 run. Jalen Williams, who scored a team-high 13, assisted on both a Cadigan layup and another Lohmann 3-pointer to open a 47-40 lead and force a timeout from Irvington coach Ron Littleton.
Littleton had been operating at foll volume for the entire afternoon, but his words during that timeout seemed to resonate with his team. Andre Gardiner scored twice and Wesley Burns tallied the last of his game-high 17 points to cut the lead to a single point, and Ho put the Vikings ahead for the final time before Cadigan’s heroics.
Burns started the day on fire, scoring all 11 of his team’s points in the first quarter, including a 3-pointer from the volleyball lines. The Vikings trailed 16-11 after a quarter but went in front on a pair of Ho free throws with 2:50 left in the second quarter, part of a 17-4 run that gave them a 31-22 lead.
Pranav Chandrasekhar finished with nine points for the Vikings, while Lohmann, who saw an increase in minutes with Ryan Anderson out injured, added nine for the Bears. Cadigan also scored nine and gathered seven rebounds.
