MORAGA, Calif. — “Cougs Don’t Lose” has been a popular slogan at Campolindo in recent years, reflecting the athletic department’s overall success.
On Thursday night, maybe it should have been “Cougs Don’t Miss.” Facing San Leandro in the NCS Open Division Quarterfinals, the Cougars shot 28-for-50 from the field to down the Pirates 70-58, with brothers Aidan and Carter Mahaney each breaking the 20-point mark.
“I’ve been healing recently. I took some games off to be at full strength for right now, and that’s when it matters most,” said Carter, who was slowed for much of January by torn ligaments in his wrist.
He scored a game-high 21 with eight rebounds and four assists, with eight of his team’s 24 points in the first quarter and a pair of baskets to close the third as Campolindo (21-5) ensured the Pirates could never launch a serious counterattack. The fourth-seeded Cougars led by 18 2:25 into the second quarter and went into the half up 39-26 on an Aidan putback. As San Leandro (18-9) finally heated up from the floor in the third, the hosts had a response for every single basket. The Pirates never got consecutive buckets in the entire third quarter, with Campo scoring at the other end on the ensuing possession all but twice and forcing a miss or turnover on those other two occasions. After a Mekhi Goodspeed three cut the lead to 54-41, Carter closed out the third quarter in style, with a lay-in off an Aidan steal and a pull-up over a defender to close the quarter up 17 after the fifth-seeded Pirates made the mistake of shooting with 20 seconds left instead of running down the clock.
In an especially physical affair against a San Leandro team full of players with the bodies of full-grown men, the Cougars weren’t bothered by the reluctance of the referees to call fouls. In fact, they embraced it.
“A lot of people look at us, and they see some soft white dudes from Moraga. I don’t think that’s what we’re about,” said Aidan. “We’re built tough, and we’ve been in these games all our lives. When we come in, we know that we’re gonna get physical and we look up to the challenge.”
Carter’s two buckets to end the quarter capped off a crucial 9-3 run that also included an Aidan three off a momentum-shifting Matt Radell block. Radell, a 6-6 sophomore center who was the victim of a thunderous Keshad Johnson dunk when the Cougars played San Leandro a year ago at El Cerrito’s Gaucho Holiday Hoop Invitational, took a hard fall in the second quarter but came back in the third, spinning and scoring over Pirates star Ciri Sawyers early in the quarter and then making it a 47-33 lead off a nice pass from Emmanuel Callas.
With Radell’s eight points and Callas’ 15-point, 11-rebound double-double, the Cougars not only went toe-to-toe with the San Leandro bigs but largely outplayed them, keeping the Pirates out of the lane and forcing them to the outside. One of the smallest men on the floor, Carter scored 21 without a single 3-pointer, alternating between drives to the hoop and pull-ups in the lane over defenders, including the elbow jumpers that he’s hit regularly since his freshman year. Campolindo did connect six times from beyond the arc, with the 6-foot-5 Callas, who’s shown impressive mobility as a junior, connecting twice.
“He’s worked on his game a lot and become a much better shooter over the course of this year,” head coach Steven Dyer said of Callas. “He can knock down the open ones for sure.”
Those open looks were largely a product of Carter’s return to full strength, which also freed up his younger brother for more shots.
“He’s really the guy that starts our offense, ends our offense, everything in between,” Aidan said. “We have him dishing the ball out and I’m the 2, so I get a lot more open looks off the ball and we start running in transition.”
After regularly scoring in the 50s and low 60s into the start of February, the Cougars have averaged 72 points per game in their last four outings, and they could have eclipsed that again on Thursday had they not taken their foot off the gas after taking a 66-46 lead midway through the fourth. A Charles Tharp three finished off a 9-3 San Leandro run to make it a 12-point game with 1:35 left, but not wanting to put the hosts on the free throw line, the Pirates went for the steal on the ensuing possession, and when they couldn’t get it, Campolindo ran down the clock before getting a Cade Bennett three to finish the game off.
“They just made some shots we weren’t expecting them to make,” San Leandro head coach Darrnaryl Stamps explained.
The Pirates got off to a strong start in the opening minutes as Ciri Sawyers knocked down a three and long jumper to start the game, but the Cougars would make their first six shots from the field, including an Aidan and-1 to take a 15-7 lead. Sawyers would pick up two fouls in rapid succession and head to the bench with 2:08 left in the first quarter, not returning until the second half and not scoring again until the fourth. He’d finish with 10, while Kiki Aguirre led the visitors with 12 despite hitting just one 3-pointer. Hikifo’ou Maile scored eight and Goodspeed dished out four assists off the bench, but the inability to drive to the basket clearly hurt San Leandro.
"I think we were just kinda going for the jump shot instead of attacking the rim,” Stamps added.
While the Cougars will turn their attention to top-seeded Dublin, who they’ll face on Wednesday at 7 p.m., the Pirates will now have to avoid getting rusty, as they’ll be going nearly two weeks before they take the court again.
“We’ll take the next couple days off and then push it Monday through Friday like a normal week,” Stamps said of his team’s upcoming plans.
With the loss, it’s likely the Pirates will find themselves in the CIF Northern California Division I bracket, while Campo’s status is up in the air, likely hinging on the result of next Wednesday’s clash with the Gaels, who were a league opponent until moving from the Diablo Athletic League to the East Bay Athletic League after the 2015-16 season. Dublin’s coaching staff and nearly half of the team’s roster was in the building on Thursday night to size up the competition.
