EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. — The Menlo Knights may not have necessarily played a masterpiece of a game on Tuesday, but they did enough to make sure Friday’s rivalry game against Sacred Heart Prep is not only for Valparaiso Avenue superiority, but also for first place in the West Bay Athletic League.
Missing sophomore Garret Keyhani (ankle) for a third straight game, the Knights closed the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 32-21 lead into the break, then outscored Eastside 16-7 over the first six minutes of the third quarter to take a 20-point lead en route to a 60-44 win over the defending league champions.
“We challenged the boys to play better (in the second half),” head coach Keith Larsen said.
Cole Kastner had 25 points and 11 rebounds to lead Menlo (11-3, 4-0 WBAL), including a dunk for the first two of his seven second-quarter points. He had a pair of and-1s in the third, the latter of which made it 48-28 as the Knights took their largest lead of the night. The Knights also got 12 points from Davis Mead and eight from Justin Sellers, while the Panthers got 12 points and 11 rebounds from Raymond Reece.
Eastside (7-3, 1-3) closed the gap to 11 in the fourth on two of David Haines’ 10 points, but the Knights responded with an 8-2 run to put the game away. Van White scored 11 for the Panthers as well.
