MORAGA – Campolindo’s boys basketball team knows what it takes to compete at the highest level.
Last season, the Aidan Mahaney-led Cougars won the North Coast Section’s Open Division playoffs, the section’s top level of competition, and came within a missed buzzer-beater of playing for a state championship.
Mahaney graduated and now stars at St. Mary’s, but seniors Logan Robeson and Shane O’Reilly, as well as several other key contributors from that team remain.
Now No. 1 seed in the NCS’s Division II playoffs, a quarterfinal home game against Benicia wasn’t nothing Campolindo’s playoff-tested team couldn’t handle.
The Moraga school rolled to an easy 66-49 victory.
“Once we played in the Open, we saw the magnitude of those games,” Robeson said. “Not to say these games are any less, because the magnitude of these games are high too. But it’s great experience, and it doesn’t hurt to have played in that division beforehand.”
The Cougars went down 8-6 three minutes into the first-quarter, but quickly retook the lead on a Robeson reverse layup and a Clay Naffziger free throw. The Cougars never trailed their league rival again. Campolindo (21-7) were champions of the Diablo Athletic League’s Foothill division, while Benicia (22-6) claimed the lower-level DAL-Valley crown.
Robeson led all scorers with 25 points and O’Reilly scored 21. Dylan Mansour scored 12 points, and made two of Campolindo’s seven three-pointers.
Jacob French, Darrell Hurd and James Wong each scored 10 points for Benicia. Campolindo led 36-23 at halftime, and had a 22-point lead midway through the third quarter.
Campolindo coach Steven Dyer told the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday that the team believed it was Open Division-caliber, and Campolindo certainly played like it had had a chip on its shoulder.
“The only way you can prove people on the seeding committee wrong is by coming out and playing well,” Dyer said. “We’ve been locked into what we need to do, and that’s taking care of business and winning these games.”
Benicia’s coach Steven Carter could only shake his head at the difficult shots Campolindo consistently made. Many of Robeson and O’Reilly’s points were scored after converting circus-shot layups and hitting tough jumpers.
“Our season has been good, but today, Campolindo was just hitting shots, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Carter said.”
Campolindo will play host to No. 5 seed Cardinal Newman on Wednesday. If it wins that game, Campolindo may have a chance to play Las Lomas, which defeated Campolindo 59-39 on Feb. 2, in the playoff final.
For now though, Campolindo’s coach is only focused on the next opponent.
“Survive and advance is what it is right now,” Dyer said. “We only have 32 minutes guaranteed.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com