ALBANY — The Salesian boys basketball team faces Bishop O”Dowd on Monday in a matchup between two programs with long winning traditions.
But first the Pride had to get past Albany on Thursday night, and that wasn’t an easy task.
Albany, which was tied for 18th in this week’s Bay Area News Group poll, trailed the top-ranked Pride by just three points early in the second half and kept Salesian’s lead at single digits for most of the third quarter before the visiting Pride pulled away with a 20-8 run to end the game in a 55-36 victory.
“We had to play really hard to shut them down. That was tough,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “This was a good win.”
The teams played on Dec. 18, and Albany led 46-38 in the third quarter before Salesian came back to win 61-56. But Salesian (20-0, 6-0 Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division) never trailed Thursday night.
“We were kind of more aware of how crisp their offense is and how good their offense is,” Mellis said.
Salesian bolted out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter, including four points from Jaden McClanahan, but Albany (17-3, 4-2) answered with an 8-2 run of its own. The Cougars tied the score at 20-0 late in the second quarter on a drive by Julian Bryant, who finished with a team-high 10 points.
But McClanahan immediately answered with a layup, then later in the quarter sank a three-point bank shot as the buzzer sounded to give Salesian a 28-20 lead at intermission.
“I called bank before it went in,” said McClanahan with a smile after the game.
Albany scored the first five points of the second half, including a three-pointer by Max Yoshida to bring the Cougars with three points at 28-25 with 7 minutes, 1 second left in the third quarter. But a three-pointer by McClanahan started a 13-3 Salesian run that gave the Pride control of the game.
Shane Bell was the closer for Salesian, scoring 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, including two monstrous dunks in a 20-second span. McClanahan added 17 points in the victory.
JoVon McClanahan added eight points and a game-high seven rebounds for Salesian, and teammate Te’Jon Sawyer scored nine points in the win.
For Albany, Avri Finch had eight points and six rebounds in the game.
“Our guys competed really hard. That’s a tough team to play. They make everything difficult for you, especially on their defensive end. You can’t replicate that at practice, how quick they are and how aggressive they are,” said Albany coach Bill Treseler, who was Salesian’s head coach from 1993-1998 with Mellis as an assistant and works at the school now as a counselor.
Now Salesian turns its sights to its game Monday at the MLK Classic at Saint Mary’s College. The Pride faces Bishop O’Dowd, ranked seventh in this week’s Bay Area News Group poll, at 6:45 p.m.
“O’Dowd is really good. We’ve played really good teams this year. Our schedule has been really tough and I’ve been happy, obviously, with the results,” said Mellis.
The teams did not play last season, but played twice in the 2016-17 season. Salesian edged Bishop O’Dowd 73-71 in two overtimes on Jan. 28, 2017 at Napa Valley College. A month before that, Salesian had another two-point win, 57-55 at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas. Five players on Salesian’s current roster saw playing time against O’Dowd that season: the McClanahans, Bell, Manny Adeoye and Tyler Brinkman. There are three players on O’Dowd’s current roster that were on the varsity team that season: Brenden Patrick, Iniko McNeil and Jelani Warren.
@mcclanahanjaden talks about Salesian’s win over Albany tonight. He scored 17 points, one of two Salesian players with 17 points or more. @DarrenSabedra @VytasMazeika @CurtisPashelka @leftwich pic.twitter.com/9NDaCMmEnY
— Phil Jensen (@JensenPhil) January 18, 2019
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