High school basketball roundup: No. 3 Riordan beats No. 2 Mitty
It was another wild night of boys basketball in the West Catholic Athletic League on Tuesday.
When the buzzers sounded, only two teams remained tied atop the standings: Archbishop Riordan and Serra.
Riordan won at Archbishop Mitty for the first time since 2002, taking command down the stretch for a 62-51 victory.
The Crusaders, ranked No. 3 by Bay Area Preps HQ, ended the game on a 12-1 run.
Up the road in Mountain View, Serra turned back young but coming-of-age St. Francis 56-45 for its second consecutive victory since last week’s unbelievable 65-14 loss at Bellarmine.
Serra, the only WCAL team to beat Riordan thus far, is 13-3 overall and 5-1 in the WCAL.
Riordan ran its record to 14-2, 5-1 as it seeks its first league title in 13 years and first outright league crown since 1990.
Bryce Monroe led the Crusaders with 24 points. Je’Lani Clark scored 18 of his 20 points after halftime.
Michael Mitchell had 16 points for second-ranked Mitty, which had won 20 consecutive home games against Riordan.
Bellarmine, St. Francis and Mitty are a game back of Riordan and Serra in the standings.
In other words, the race is far from over.
Bellarmine bounced back from a loss Friday at Riordan, erasing a seven-point halftime deficit to defeat host St. Ignatius 61-52.
The midpoint of the league season arrives Friday when Mitty visits Serra, St. Francis travels to Riordan and Bellarmine plays host to Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Campolindo 74, Las Lomas 48
One night after losing to Bishop O’Dowd on a jump shot in the waning seconds, Campolindo roared back with a rout of Las Lomas in Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division play.
Aidan Mahaney, plagued by foul trouble against O’Dowd, led Campo with 26 points on Tuesday. Emmanuel Callas added 18 points and Logan Robeson chipped in with 10 points.
The Cougars improved to 14-5 overall and 5-0 in the league. Las Lomas is 13-5, 2-3.
GIRLS
No. 2 Pinewood 57, No. 21 Sacred Heart Prep 41
Ten days ago, Pinewood saw its 66-game win streak in the West Bay Athletic League dating back to 2013 snapped at Menlo School in Atherton.
The Panthers returned to the scene of the defeat on Tuesday night — sort of.
SHP is the neighbor and rival of Menlo, which the Gators defeated in overtime 59-55 on Friday.
But SHP is no longer alone atop the WBAL Foothill Division standings after Pinewood pulled away in the second half.
“We frittered away end-of-quarter leads,” said Pinewood coach Doc Scheppler, whose team went into halftime ahead 30-27. “We just turned it over, made silly mistakes, but we made 3’s at crucial times, got crucial putbacks, pretty efficient from the floor.”
SHP (11-5, 3-1) was outscored 27-14 after intermission, unable to take advantage of 20 turnovers by Pinewood (14-1, 3-1), including seven calls for travel.
“At least those are dead-ball turnovers,” Scheppler said. “But we have to work on our footwork and decision-making. Big ceiling to get better.”
The Panthers got a double-double from 6-foot-3 post player Maia Garcia (10 points, 17 rebounds), along with 16 points and seven boards from Courtni Thompson, a balanced effort from Annika Decker (7 points, 5 assists, 7 rebounds) and 12 points out of Una Jovanovic.
All four of them are juniors.
Circled on the calendar for the Panthers is next week’s game in Los Altos Hills against fourth-ranked Menlo (14-2, 2-1), which is idle until Friday.
“They held serve,” Scheppler said. “People think of our Pinewood team as being the same team we were last year. We’re a lot different. We’re a team in development and we have some good wins under our belt. We’re not at the level of Mitty, but who is really around here? Nobody is.
“I like our chances if we keep developing our players and get to play in the right mind-set. They’re certainly fun to coach, I should say that.”