No need to understand French to appreciate this Paris

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SAN PABLO, Ca. — Paris Austin missed on a breakaway dunk attempt during each half of the sixth NorCal Clash Sunday afternoon (August 24) at Contra Costa College.

And that’s about the only negative that could be gleaned from the performance of the 6-foot senior point guard, who paced the Class of 2015 Northern California squad to a 114-100 victory over its 2016 counterpart.

The 2015 team was playing without the state’s best prospect in that class in Austin’s 6-9 Oakland Bishop O’Dowd teammate Ivan Rabb (who was resting a sprained ankle that also kept him sidelined Saturday during the nationally televised Under Armour Elite 24 in New York).

Rabb’s absence certainly put the younger squad in better position to come away from the victory and the 2016 squad, getting solid play from its own terrific point guard, Jordan Ford (Folsom) broke out to an 11-2 advantage.

But Austin, as a scorer, passer and defender, then all but took over things while pushing his squad to a 13-point edge (54-41) at intermission.

The 2016 team never closer than within five points in the fourth quarter and that was when Austin, University of Washington-committed Marquese Chriss (Elk Grove Pleasant Grove) and University of Pacific-bound Anthony Townes (Modesto Christian) were on the bench.

But those three got back on the floor and quickly pushed the advantage back into double figures.

Austin, who has recruiting visits set for the University of Montana and Boise State in the fall, scored 18 points with eight rebounds, 11 assists, four steals and only two turnovers in 23 (of a possible 40) minutes.

The 6-8 Chriss (23 points) and 6-6 Townes (22) had 11 buckets apiece and a healthy percentage came via Austin passes in transition, off penetration or in pick-and-roll action.

Townes grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and Chriss collected eight.

Ford played 29 minutes for a 2016 squad that, due to injuries (to Christian Ellis of Modesto Christian, Oscar Frayer of Hayward Moreau, Ben Kone of San Jose Mitty and Solomon Young of Sacramento), had just eight players in uniform. He scored 18 points (hitting three of six attempts behind the arc) with eight rebounds and four assists.

Carlos Johnson of El Cerrito (who played his first two seasons for Shadow Mountain in Phoenix), got off to a bad start, missing six of nine shots from the field (most of those forced) with four turnovers and seemingly nary a pass to a teammate, much less an assist, in the first half.

But he crunched folks in the second half, hitting 21 points (to finish with 31) including all nine of his free-throw attempts before fouling out with a bit more than a minute to go.

Christian Terrell, Young’s Sacramento High teammate, added 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists for the 2016 squad.