San Leandro Boys Come Up Short Against Bishop O'Dowd

When Isiah Thompson swished a 3-pointer with 2:22 to go, the gym at San Leandro High was rocking Friday night.

The Pirates had stormed back from a 10-point deficit to tie Bishop O’Dowd High, 51-51. The Pirates could envision pulling into a tie for first place in the Hayward Area Athletic League boys basketball race with the Oakland school.

But the visiting Dragons continued their game-long habit on controlling the boards to get repeated second, third and fourth chances to score. O’Dowd’s Kendall Jackson made the big shot and then converted four free throws out of two 1-and-1 situations.

As a result, Bishop O’Dowd (13-4, 8-0 HAAL) grabbed a hard-earned 59-55 victory to take command of the HAAL race at the start of the second half of league play. San Leandro fell to 6-2 in league and 14-4 overall.

San Leandro coach Sean MacKay was disappointed but liked the way his team fought back, both in the fourth quarter and after the visitors jumped to an 8-0 early lead.

“The guys kept their composure, got some stops and were ready to play,” MacKay said.

But O’Dowd met the challenge in the final two minutes. The key play came when Richard Longrus Jr., a 6-foot-6 freshman from Fremont, grabbed the rebound after a Dragons’ 3-pointer missed and threw it back out to Jackson beyond the 3-point arc outside the top of the key. Jackson drilled it to put O’Dowd up 57-54 with a little over a minute to go.

Andre Russell scored on a putback to pull San Leandro within 54-53, but Jackson was fouled with 53.9 seconds to go, made both free throw for 56-53 and later made two more with 11.3 seconds left to salt it away at 59-53.

About the crucial 3-point play that put the Dragons back in the lead for good, Jackson, a 5-9 senior, said, “Our bigs were doing a really big job and Junior got the ball and kicked it out to me."

“Our coaches were telling us to stay confident and calm, and that’s what I tried to do, just the way we do in practice,” he said.

Jackson had 10 points, seven coming in the final minute a half. Marcus Green led O’Dowd with a game-high 21 points.

Ishi Ali and Dejon Budreaux each scored 15 points to pace the Pirates.

“It’s a rivalry game and our guys have a lot of pride,” MacKay said. “They didn’t want to let the school or the community down. And the fans were great. They provided us so much support.”

They turned out in big numbers on a rainy night.

O’Dowd built up a 10-point lead in the third quarter after San Leandro had fought back to take a brief one-point lead late in first half and again at the start of the second half at 31-30.

The Dragons caused San Leandro trouble employing a 1-3-1 zone defense for several possessions, but the Pirates roared back in the fourth.

O’Dowd coach Doug Vierra acknowledged he was disappointed the Dragons let the lead slip but was happy they were “resilient.” But the veteran coach added, “They (the Pirates) are good and Sean does a good job. They really created it (the comeback). I was impressed with their defensive play.”