REDWOOD CITY, CA — Having lost four of their last five meetings with rival Sequoia, the Menlo-Atherton Bears didn’t hold anything back on Wednesday night.
Though they didn’t lead until late in the third quarter, M-A set the tone throughout with a physical game by getting Sequoia in foul trouble and rarely letting the Cherokee shooters get open.
When it was all said and done, the normally subdued Bears had a thunderous celebration in the locker room, one that could be heard from the other end of Sequoia’s gym following a 57-49 Menlo-Atherton victory.
“We just couldn’t match their energy,” said Sequoia head coach Fine Lauese. “We played hard all the way to the end, but I thought they came out and wanted it more.”
“This was a big win for us,” said Menlo-Atherton head coach Mike Molieri. “I thought defensively we did a pretty good job.”
The 16th-ranked Bears were able to largely render Sequoia’s biggest weapon ineffective by getting Ziggy Lauese in foul trouble. The 6-foot-6 center finished with just five points, and Myles Nunez, who torched the Bears for 20 in a 47-41 Sequoia win back on January 16, was held to just three, which came in the final minute.
Offensively, the same M-A team that couldn’t buy a shot in that first meeting, or in three other losses in a two-week span in mid-January, was completely transformed on Wednesday. The Bears used superior ball movement to get going, outscoring the Cherokees 16-7 in the third and taking the lead for good on a Will Beasley 3-pointer with 3:10 to play.
Beasley shot 3-for-5 from the field en route to his 11 points. While there were no massive individual offensive performances for Menlo-Atherton (14-8, 7-3 PAL South), the Bears had offense from up and down the lineup.
James Beckwith and Bradley Stillman each scored 12 for M-A, with Stillman connecting on back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Bears a 37-36 lead with 1:34 left in the third for their first advantage of the game.
Sequoia (17-5, 9-1) went into half with a 29-23 lead on Sam Schult’s half-court shot and led by eight early in the third, but couldn’t score down the stretch.
“We couldn’t seem to find a bucket,” said Lauese.
The hosts did lead 16-9 through a quarter and, after the Bears cut the lead to two, went on a 7-2 run out of a timeout to stretch the lead to 26-19, with five points from Pedram Attari in the span. The senior guard led all scorers with 13 on the night, but none of his teammates scored more than six.
Back-to-back baskets by Nick Tripaldi got the Bears within three before Schult connected on his heave from near the midcourt logo, but the momentum from his shot wouldn’t last long.
Around the PAL
Sequoia still remained in a tie for first as Mills fell to Aragon, 46-40. The Vikings trailed 16-3 through one quarter and could never make up the deficit. Aragon (12-9, 6-4) made it five straight wins with 15 points from Sam Manu and 11 from Davion Cox, while Mills (18-4, 9-1) got 12 from Colby Vasquez, including eight in the second quarter as the Vikings cut the lead to five heading into the break.
With the win, Aragon sealed its place in the PAL Tournament. The Dons sit a game behind Menlo-Atherton for third place but own a head-to-head tiebreaker, so should the Bears slip up, a window will open for Aragon to climb in the standings.
Burlingame head coach Pete Harames is retiring at the end of the season, but he got to enjoy one final win at his old stomping grounds as his Panthers took down host Capuchino, 58-51. Harames graduated from Capuchino in 1962 and took the Mustangs to a Northern California title in 1995. Cal Spurlock led all scorers with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting and sank all three of his 3-point attempts as Burlingame (4-18, 3-7) opened up an early 14-2 lead and led for all but a brief span in the second quarter. Gavin Coleman scored 12 and Robert Uhrich added 11. Capuchino (7-15, 1-9) got 14 points off the bench from Cruise Thompson and 13 from Tamier Abuelrous.
Hillsdale (15-7, 4-6) made it three wins in a row with a 39-36 victory over host San Mateo (11-11, 4-6).
Sho Takahashi’s 3-pointer in the final 15 seconds of overtime proved to be the difference as Carlmont (11-11, 4-6) was the only home team to win on the night in the PAL South, 67-65 over Woodside (10-12, 3-7), who was without head coach Roderick Harrison as his wife gave birth to twin boys.
Special thanks to Tyler Jamieson for contributing to this report.
