SAN LEANDRO — Friday night’s battle between San Leandro and Bishop O’Dowd was the outstanding showdown that such a high-profile matchup deserved, and it got the dramatic finish as the icing on the cake.
Junior Maile drove the length of the court, taking the inbound pass with 5.6 seconds left and laying it in just before the buzzer to give the host Pirates a 54-52 win before a packed house in a game that will likely split the WACC Foothill title.
O’Dowd had won the first meeting back on January 9, 52-50, taking the lead on a late layup by Iniko McNeil and hanging on when T.J. Kilgore’s 3-pointer at the buzzer went halfway down but fell out.
“We ran the play at O’Dowd and just missed the shot,” said San Leandro head coach Darrnaryl Stamps.
This time, though, Maile cut around Will Chavarin, who had scored a game-high 17 points, and dodged Ryzon Norris on the way to the hoop before the game-winning finger roll, setting off a wild celebration for those who made it inside the gym and undoubtedly causing a world of regrets for those who didn’t show up early enough to get inside the doors.
Maile was the final hero on a night full of big performances. San Leandro (17-4, 5-1 WACC Foothill) seemed to have a different star claim each quarter as his own. The first went to Keshad Johnson, the San Diego State commit who scored seven of his team-high 12 in the quarter. Kilgore poured in eight of his nine points in the second and kept the energy going into the third quarter, with flashy dance moves during second-half warmups. The third belonged to Ciri Sawyers, who went scoreless in the first half but scored the Pirates’ first five of the third quarter and helped his team open up a seven-point lead, while the final quarter was a mix of Lawrence Long, Kiki Aguirre and, of course, Maile.
Bishop O’Dowd (13-7, 5-1) got the final two points of the third on Brenden Patrick free throws after a technical foul and used that to start a 10-0 run, with a Chavarin and-1, a Patrick 3-pointer for the lead and another basket from Chavarin to take a 39-36 advantage before Long, a 6-foot-5 guard who hadn’t played until January because of injuries, hit back-to-back threes to put the hosts on top again.
“Having him is huge,” Stamps said. “It gives us a chance to go big, and we were able to save him a little bit for down the stretch.”
Long finished with eight points, all in the fourth, and a game-high 10 rebounds.
As for Aguirre, he had missed his first six shots on the night but sank a 3-pointer from the corner to put the eighth-ranked Pirates up 47-43.
“Keshad told me to shoot the next one,” said Aguirre, one of eight juniors on the roster. “My teammates had confidence in me.”
The third-ranked Dragons would respond, quieting the crowd with a 6-2 run to tie the game on a pair of Chavarin free throws with 2:02 left.
30 seconds later, a Sawyers and-1 on a putback would put SL back on top, but a McNeil three-point play with 47.2 left evened the score at 52. Ryzon Norris stripped Johnson with 35 seconds left to give O’Dowd a chance to win the game, but Sawyers would draw an offensive foul on Chavarin with 5.6 to go, giving just enough time for Maile to take it down the court for the winner.
“We sent Keshad down the middle as a decoy and sent Lawrence on a long one,” Stamps said. “That gave us the side.”
The finish even left an impression on O’Dowd coach Lou Richie, who applauded and immediately raced over to congratulate Stamps.
“Great game for the crowd, family and community,” Richie said. “Their kids were great, and they were very humble in the handshake line. That’s what you want, a hard-fought game.”
It was a physical, grimy game with a few streetball elements, but Richie and his team showed tremendous class in the aftermath as any hard feelings were left on the floor.
O’Dowd managed to hang around despite missing sophomore Marsalis Roberson to injury. Norris, who stands just 6-1, and 6-3 junior Monty Bowser made up for Roberson’s absence, each collecting eight rebounds.
“I’m not really a post player, but I’ve learned that position,” said Bowser, who also scored seven points. “The coaches have done a great job teaching me how to play down there, and they’ve helped me a lot as an all-around basketball player.”
Despite trailing much of the second half and hitting just one shot from the field in the third quarter, the Dragons were in striking distance at the end. A 24-23 halftime lead quickly turned into a six-point deficit as a thunderous dunk from Johnson capped off a 9-2 Pirate run, and San Leandro had the largest lead of the night at 36-29 before the two Patrick free throws to close the third.
“The kids had some resiliency,” Riche said. “It boiled down to execution at the end, and we didn’t execute on offense or on defense.”
Unfortunately, with San Leandro in NCS Division I and Bishop O’Dowd in Division II, the only possible rematch would be in the state tournament, which would require a lot of pieces to fall into place. In fact, the two may not even be in the same division, as San Leandro now appears to have the better chance at an Open Division berth.
If that’s the case, the two meetings will have to go down as a draw, with the home team taking each by two points. McNeil was nearly the hero again on Friday, and his 14 points were huge, but it was Maile, who scored 10, that delivered the final push in a truly remarkable display of basketball between two local rivals in front of a crowd befitting of the excellence on the court.
The only regret that any spectator could have left with was that there wasn’t more of such an outstanding game. Not only would overtime have been a treat, but the game was actually a full minute short of regulation. The referees mistakenly took a minute off the game clock when resetting the time in the second quarter.
It was a win that further asserts San Leandro’s presence as a major regional power this year, just one season after posting a 12-14 record. Sure, Johnson’s presence helps, but he’s far from the only reason the Pirates are enjoying such a great season.
“Last year, we had nine sophomores and two freshmen,” Stamps said. “We played a very strong schedule, which I try to do every year, so last year was a bunch of learning. It was probably one of my best years coaching, because I was able to coach guys that were willing to learn and get better. With their work ethic and will to get better, now you’re seeing their potential on the floor.”
