Seniors get the best of juniors in NorCal Clash

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EL CERRITO, Ca. – Age prevailed – but oh-so-barely – Sunday afternoon at El Cerrito High in a clash between most of the best prep basketball players from the Northern California Class of 2014 and their counterparts from 2015.

The seniors prevailed, 90-89, despite some impressive performances by two gifted juniors from Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd.

Coach Lou Richie’s Dragons were 26-4 last season and could rival that record – and contend for sectional and state titles – in 2013-14 behind those aforementioned players from the Class of 2014, Ivan Rabb and Paris Austin.

The 6-foot-9 Rabb walked into the gymnasium Sunday afternoon about 10 minutes before the scheduled tip-off to the fifth NorCal Clash.

He had good reason for the late arrival – and deserved major props for showing up at all.

He played in the Under Armour Elite 24 game Saturday evening in Brooklyn, and his return flight landed at the Oakland Airport – about 19 miles south of El Cerrito High – less than an hour before the 3:30 tip-off.

Without anything resembling a real “warm-up” Rabb wasn’t nearly as sharp, offensively, as he’ll no doubt be in December.

But he did more than enough while finishing with game-highs of 23 points (he missed 13 of his 23 shots from the floor, at least half of those misses which he would, no doubt, finish normally) and 10 rebounds to justify his status as one of the very best in the Class of 2015 – from coast to coast.

And, in very different fashion, his 5-9 Bishop O’Dowd classmate and teammate, Paris Austin, was every bit as impressive.

He added 18 points to go with seven rebounds and five assists and may have been the quickest player on the floor Sunday afternoon.

The reason for the may have been qualifier for Austin?

That’s because 5-8 Trevor Dunbar was playing for the Class of 2014 squad.

The left-handed Dunbar (who attends St. Ignatius in San Francisco) in eerily similar to Isaiah Thomas of the Sacramento Kings, both facially and physically, as well as in playing style.

Dunbar – using his quickness of foot and hand to great advantage at both ends of the floor – earned Most Outstanding Player kudos from the media and scouts in attendance (caveat: I was one of the voters) after scoring 14 points to go with five assists and two steals, one of which led to his layup that put the Class of 2014 up to stay in the final few minutes.

Neither team was ever in front by margin of more than seven points, although the seniors would have been able to makes the outcome a little less precarious down the stretch if they had not missed 12 of 19 free-throw attempts, with Dunbar going 0 for 3 in the final 30 seconds.

Dunbar had plenty of help in pushing the seniors to victory as, at various points, guards Frankie Ferrari (Burlingame/four points and five assists) and Gabe Vincent (Stockton St. Mary’s/13 points), as well as forwards Jalen Canty (Vallejo St. Patrick-St. Vincent/14 points and four rebounds) and Shon Briggs (Brentwood Heritage/eight points, including two 3s, and six rebounds), each looked like the squad’s best player.

Ferrari committed to the University of San Francisco recently while Vincent – the best jump shooter in the game – said Sunday morning that he would sign with UC Santa Barbara in November.

Among those who also had solid moments for the juniors were guards Armani Collins (San Francisco Stuart Hall/11 points, including three 3s) and Tyrell Alcorn (El Cerrito/nine points).

The crowd appeared to cover about three-quarters of the capacity of the bleachers and those in attendance got their money’s ($10 for adults/$8 for students) worth.

All in all it was a very nice production put on by event directors Gerry Freitas and Travis Farris – and of course, by the players themselves.