MORAGA — Jalen Green lived up to his billing as one of the top juniors in the country, scoring a game-high 29 points for San Joaquin Memorial, but the inside tandem of Andrew Flannigan and Tim Kostolansky combined to lift the De La Salle Spartans over Green’s Panthers at the MaxPreps MLK Classic, 53-47.
Faced with 6-foot-11 center Braxton Meah, who transferred to Memorial from Utah’s Layton Christian Academy, Flannigan and Kostolansky combined for 31 points and 21 rebounds as De La Salle (17-2) led for all but the first two minutes.
“Dominating the glass is always part of our gameplan,” Flannigan said. “Tonight we were really able to execute that.”
While the two men in the middle combined with freshman Noah Clifford’s efforts off the bench to make plays throughout the Monday afternoon contest, the one big run for Spartans was fueled by Cade Arbogast, who scored five of his 11 during a 10-2 stretch early in the third quarter to open up a 12-point advantage. An Arbogast 3-pointer made it 37-27, and a Jack Byers lay-in after a steal gave the Spartans their largest lead of the day.
“Our offense works inside-out,” Kostolansky added. “We like to get it in to our big dudes and pass it out when we can.”
Crisp passing fueled De La Salle, with assists on 17 of the Spartans’ 23 baskets. Thomas Gregorios and freshman Jeremiah Dargan each had five, with Dargan also tallying seven points and six rebounds.
“My first year when I was here, I coached Emeka Udenyi and Eric Headley. They would always play off one another and pass to one another. These two seem to be getting the hang of it and doing the same thing,” said head coach Justin Argenal. “We thought whoever the 6-11 kid was guarding, the other post would have a mismatch inside.”
Green, ranked by both 247Sports and ESPN as the second-best player in the Class of 2020, kept San Joaquin Memorial (13-10) within striking distance, and had the rims at McKeon Pavilion been friendlier, he might have been able to do enough to lead his team to victory. Two of his 3-point attempts went halfway down before rimming out, including one with his team trailing 47-42 with 1:40 left. The Panthers had scored six straight on 3-pointers by Jaden Geron and Green, and had the superstar junior connected again, they would have trailed by just two.
Even with the tough rims, Green still shot 11-for-18 on the day, including 4-of-9 on 3-pointers. He finished two rebounds short of a double-double and had two dunks, an alley-oop in the first quarter and a fastbreak jam early in the fourth. He was largely left out to dry, though, with his teammates combining for just six assists and no other Panther scoring more than six points.
