RICHMOND — For the last 10 years, Salesian has dominated its league.
The Pride usually breeze past their Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division opponents, boasting a 79-2 league record since the 2015-16 season.
But on Tuesday, Salesian was in a dog fight with a new look St. Mary’s-Berkeley in front of a packed gym at home. In the end, Salesian’s defense stepped up big in the second half to seal a 64-50 victory and capture its 16th win in the annual Rock game.
“We knew going in this was going to be a tough game,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “St. Mary’s is vastly improved and they’re playing great. We needed to play well to win that game.”
Junior guard Isaiah Davis added, “Getting a game like this will help us in the playoffs for sure. Sometimes our league hasn’t been that good, but St. Mary’s made us better.”
Junior guard Elias Obenyah led Salesian with 15 points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals. Leon Powe added 11 and seven rebounds and Alvin Loving and Carlton Perrilliat each added nine points. Davis did all the little things for Salesian in the second half totaling five rebounds, four assists and a steal.
Despite the loss, first-year St. Mary’s coach Marshall Collins said he was proud of the way his team fought until the end.
“My guys just played hard,” he said. “Last year, they damn near lost by 50 points. … I’m proud of them. My team is young. I got six sophomores that play big minutes.
“I want NorCal to know we’re here. We’re the little step child in the corner that nobody knows about. We’re coming.”
The two teams played about even in the first half.
In the second quarter, Salesian looked like it was going to make a big run as the Pride opened the period on a 9-2 run capped off by a Obenyah steal-and-score. But after a timeout, St. Mary’s went on a 9-0 run of their own, fueled by a tenacious full-court press, to tie the game at 26.
At halftime, Salesian led 32-30.
After a fiery halftime speech by Mellis, Salesian looked more focused on the defensive end. The Pride held the Panthers to just nine points in the third quarter. Turning up the heat on defense led to easy buckets on offense for Salesian.
A transition 3-pointer by Powe increased Salesian’s lead to 10 with just under three minutes left in the third. Powe then ended the quarter scoring off a Salesian steal, giving the Pride a 13-point lead going into the fourth.
Salesian totaled 15 steals as a team.
St. Mary’s cut the lead to 12 points in the final period, but Salesian’s defense proved too much as the Pride cruised to a double-digit victory.
“I think competing with a team like that builds our confidence,” St. Mary’s senior point guard Jaden Jones said. “We’re going to play them later in the season and we’re going to know that we can compete with them.”
Jones totaled 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Sophomore forward Donovan Mikel had a game-high 15 points to go along with seven rebounds. Junior CJ Baltrip chipped in eight points.
Kellen Hampton exploded for 30 points as the Mariners dominated Mission San Jose at home.
Dominic Walker added 14 points and Isaiah Clendinen had nine for Moreau (10-2, 3-0).
Darsh Jayaram had 14 points to lead Mission San Jose, which dropped to 9-6, 2-1.
Brayde Kuykendall scored a team-high 13 points and Emeka Ifediora and Sib Sankar each had 13 to lead California to a blowout road win over Alhambra.
Torrance Avery, Jaimison Krause and Vincente Taylor each had 10 points for Alhambra, which dropped to 7-5.
California finished its non-league portion of its schedule with a 15-2 record and will travel to Amador Valley on Friday to kick off East Bay Athletic League play.
Liberty picked up its third league win of the year behind 19 points from sophomore standout Jaiden Miller.
Junior guard Dante Vigil added 16 points and Mekhi Reed had 12 points for Liberty. Arek Andrada led Freedom with 12 points.
Liberty (13-2, 3-0) is scheduled to play Weston Ranch on Thursday. Freedom, which dropped to 3-12, 0-3, hosts Pittsburg on Friday.
In a matchup of last season’s North Coast Section Division Division V title game, Head-Royce came out on top again.
Head-Royce senior guard Micah Nyamuzuwe had 22 points and five rebounds. Nick Taubes added 18 points on 8 of 11 shooting and Mikael Akpala chipped in 12 points.
The Jayhawks won their first league game of the season and improved to 7-7 with a matchup against College Prep coming on Thursday. Athenian dropped to 6-5 and will travel to St. Joseph Notre Dame on Thursday.
Senior guard Kays Ziada totaled 23 points to lead James Logan (3-11, 0-2) to a 63-56 upset win over American (6-8, 0-2) in overtime. … Foothill narrowly edged out Heritage at home 70-69. Senior Vedant Mehta led Foothill with 20 points. Jace Bernard and Brady Lockrem each had 18 points for Heritage. … Monte Vista remained undefeated at home, defeating Berkeley 65-50. Collin Ellis had 20 points and Max Nishikawa and Ian Desai each had 12 points.
Ella Gunderson had 23 points, five rebounds and five assists in SRV’s blowout win over Alameda on the road.
Junior Alyssa Rudd added 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Kaitlyn Mills had 12 points and seven assists and Hania Bowes chipped in 11 points.
SRV (11-2) is slated to travel to Dougherty Valley on Friday for its first league game.
Mia Borja had a team-high 11 points for Alameda, which dropped to 8-5.
Piedmont picked up another signature win, defeating California for the second time this season at home.
Freshman Andrea Martin had a game-high 22 points and grabbed six rebounds for Piedmont. Freshman Jenelle Solis totaled 18 points, eight assists and three steals. Senior Briana Webb did it all as she scored 14 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out three assists and totaled two steals.
California guard Lauren Yee had a terrific shooting night despite the loss as she had 21 points and made five 3-pointers.
Piedmont improved to 11-1 and will start league play against San Leandro on Thursday. California dropped to 7-6 and kicks off league play against Amador Valley on Friday.
Freedom picked up its third league win of the season, defeating Liberty at home by five.
Eve Monzon had a team-high 14 points for Freedom. Liberty guard Shyanne Smith had a game-high 16 points.
Freedom improved to 12-5, 3-0 and is slated to play at Pittsburg on Friday. Liberty dropped to 6-8, 1-2 and travels to Piedmont on Saturday.
The Huskies did not allow more than six points in a quarter as they defeated league foe Kennedy by 24.
Washington’s Mikaela Dumagan led all scorers with 17 points. Chloe Buchner had eight points for Kennedy.
Kennedy is now 5-4, 1-2 and will play at Newark Memorial on Thursday. Washington will take a 10-3, 2-1 record into its game against Moreau on Thursday.
Senior Ravyn Martin had 18 points in San Leandro’s 40-29 win over Hayward.
Elianna Sega scored 11 points for Hayward, which dropped to 2-11. San Leandro improved to 8-3.
