CONCORD – With all due respect to its Thursday night East Bay Athletic League opponent, there’s a reason host De La Salle is the Cal-Hi Sports state No. 7 ranked, NorCal No. 2 ranked, and Bay Area No. 1 team in the pecking order, and they showed it in an impressive 89-41 win over Granada-Livermore.
With the victory De La Salle won its 13th-staight game since a loss to Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas (Nevada) in the second round of the Maxpreps Holiday Classic in Palm Springs.
The game was never in doubt as De La Salle (20-1, 10-0) went on a 22-1 run to turn a 7-5 early lead into a 29-6 margin after the first quarter.
University of San Francisco-committed 6-5 senior Jordan Ratinho barely broke a sweat and still had 15 of his game-high 23 points (three 3-pointers) in the first quarter. After halftime and a 53-24 Spartans lead, Ratinho and his 23 points and the rest of the starters were relegated to the bench in a game that still went to a running clock.
Despite the lopsided nature of the game 6-6, 230-pound junior power forward Emeka Udenyi showed why he has been impressive in the paint and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in less than 12 minutes of work.
The way the game unfolded allowed first-year Coach A.J. Kuhle to give his hard working reserves some time on the floor and they responded by stretching the 29-point halftime lead to the 40-point running clock threshold with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. Junior guard Andrew Arnaudon was the biggest recipient of the playing time after dropping in 12 points (two 3-pointers) with three assists. Another junior Eric Headley had eight rebounds and two assists.
“All our kids work hard every day in practice and the weight room and a game like this gives us a chance to create more opportunities for the kids to get better and have some fun,” Kuhle remarked.
The Spartans now march down to Southern California where they are in one of the marquee games of the Mater Dei-Santa Ana Nike Extravaganza on Saturday night when they meet state-ranked Centennial-Corona. The game is a rematch of the CIF Open Division football title game only this time the action is on the hardwood.
“It’s a unique and fun match-up because of the football team’s connection,” Kuhle said. “We played a team from Texas early in the season and got a little love for the football team at the expense of Texas. Now we can give the football team a little more love.”
“There’s the football connection but really it’s just another game. We’re going down south to execute our game plan and come out with a win,” said 6-4 senior star Nikhil Peters. “Getting the “w” is the main goal.”
Getting the “w” is something they do a lot of at De La Salle both in football and basketball, and with Kuhle at the helm replacing legendary Coach Frank Allocco (now assisting at the University of San Francisco) the basketball team hasn’t seemed to miss a beat.
