MORAGA, CA – Everyone in the state that follows boys basketball knows about Salesian senior Connecticut-bound James Akinjo, and in Northern California and the Bay Area fans have heard about the McClanahan twins, juniors Jaden and Jovan, but now Pride fans have a new name to scream, and shout it they did on Saturday afternoon at St. Mary’s College.
Despite only starting in his third game that was actually necessitated by minor injuries to the McClanahan twins, Te’Jon Sawyer is a name a lot more folks are likely going to be hearing about in the future.
All the 6-7, 260-pound Sawyer did was take total control in the paint and finish strong off pinpoint passes by Akinjo and Jaden McClanahan to help lead top-seed Salesian to a North Coast Section Division III title-game 67-53 victory over a no quit and second-seed Campolindo.
Although only a sophomore, in this game he looked more like a man amongst boys after finishing with a monster double-double 24 points and 18 rebounds with three blocked shots.
“We know he has it in him and tonight they just didn’t have an answer for him,” said Salesian Coach Bill Mellis regarding Sawyer.
“To be honest, I don’t thing there’s anyone in Northern California that can guard him. He’s gotten a lot better since the start of the season,” added Akinjo
Sawyer was a bit shy after the game since he’s not gotten a lot of attention, but once the media crowded around him he warmed up a bit.
“Its practice, practice that’s helped me. The coaches push me and get on me in practice and tell me to work hard, and that’s what I’m doing,” said Sawyer.
Akinjo finished with his usual solid outing after scoring 17 points with five assists and two steals. Jaden McClanahan added seven points and five assists with three steals.
Salesian (30-1) only led 18-14 after the first quarter and 29-21 at the half. Sawyer scored the first basket of the second half off a pass from Akinjo and Akinjo drained a three-pointer, and in short order Salesian had a 15-point lead.
From there, Salesian was unable to pull away as the Cougars closed to nine points on two occasions, the last at 60-51 before the Pride closed out the game on a 7-2 run.
“Campolindo runs good sets, plays good defense and can shoot the ball,” Mellis remarked. “I didn’t think we would blow them out but I thought we could win by double-digits like we did.”
Campolindo (19-10) got very solid performances from David Ahazie, Trevin Kroichick and Carter Mahaney. Ahazie, a junior guard had 19 points and seven rebounds. Kroichick, a crafty and quick senior guard that had a steal off Akinjo, added 15 points with three assists and three steals. Mahaney, a sophomore guard that didn’t back down when asked to guard Akinjo, chipped in with 10 points.
It was the second straight year Campolindo has given Salesian a tussle in the NCS D3 title game after falling 55-40 as the No. 2 seed to the top-seeded Pride last year.
“We know people are coming after us but we don’t make a big deal out of it. We just play and don’t worry about rankings,” said Mellis, whose team is not only tops in the Prep2Prep NCS rankings but No. 1 in the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings and No. 5 in the Maxpreps national computer rankings as well.
“We played hard but we’re still not satisfied,” Campolindo Coach Steven Dyer said. “We came here to win, not just compete. It’s frustrating to get to the NCS championship game and lose but it will prepare us for NorCals.”
After winning the D4 title two years ago Salesian has now won its third straight NCS championship, a seventh in the last 10 seasons. It was also the eighth NCS title for 20-year head coach Mellis who got career win No. 502 after recording No. 500 in a D3 quarterfinal win over Alhambra two weeks ago.
“We need to practice better going into the NorCals. We’ve kind of been going through the motions, but the good thing is we have a whole week to prepare and we can get after it for a couple of days, fix some things and get the kinks out,” said Mellis when asked about some key things moving forward.
There is little question the Pride will be the Northern Regional Open Division top seed when the seedings are announced on Sunday. Campolindo could land as high as Division I or possibly Division II with so many teams in the mix.
