Weathering early Valley Christian surge, visiting Oakland High finds its footing and overpowers Warriors in San Jose
SAN JOSE — Oakland High didn’t even need the first quarter on Tuesday night at Valley Christian.
Oakland, the No. 13 seed in the CIF NorCal Division II bracket, trailed No. 4 VC 16-4 after the first eight minutes in San Jose.
The next 24 minutes rendered the result of the opening frame meaningless. Oakland owned the remainder of the contest, cutting the deficit to six by halftime and taking the lead midway through the third quarter.
The Wildcats never trailed again, and on the strength of their overall excellence, they stretched the advantage further and took a no-doubt 59-45 win back home to the East Bay.
“We were 45 minutes late getting down here, and they were just shell-shocked,” said Oakland coach Orlando Watkins. “Valley Christian is a good team. They ran their stuff, and they got out to the lead. I just told my guys, ‘Just calm down. There’s three more quarters. If we do well the next quarter, well the next quarter and well in the fourth quarter, we’ll be back in the game.’ And that’s what they did.”
Oakland (22-8) got back within striking distance in the second quarter, took control in the third and won going away in the fourth. With Valley Christian mired in a shooting slump, the Wildcats didn’t need long to tie the game, and they needed even less time to pull away.
“We’re looking at the bench going, ‘Who can give us a spark, give us some energy?’” VC coach Colin Pfaff said. “We tried a lot of guys. Guys didn’t have it tonight for whatever reason, unfortunately. You’d like to think on your home court, someone’s ready to go, and we just couldn’t find that right combination tonight.
“And then guys missing shots, you know? I mean, we didn’t score a field goal in the third quarter. I think we scored free throws, only scored six points or something like that. So kind of the snowball effect there.”
The Warriors scored five total points in the third, and indeed, all of them came via the charity stripe. It’s the sort of offensive output coaches have nightmares about, unless they’re on the other side.
“We told them, ‘This is the season,’” Watkins said. “‘If you guys don’t match what you did in the second quarter, this is our last game.’ And all these guys want to go on and get another game. So I challenged them, and they responded.”
Oakland relied on a balanced scoring effort to come from behind and take the lead for good. Khaleed Odumuyiwa led the Wildcats with 12 points, followed closely by Rohm Neal with 11.
Bryant Clark put forth a Herculean effort for Valley Christian down the stretch, trying to will the Warriors back into the game with 17 fourth-quarter points. He finished with 22 points overall to lead all scorers.
Valley Christian’s loss brought a bitter end to an unforgettably sweet season for the Warriors. VC (18-10) won more games than it had since the 2005-06 campaign and raised the bar for what next year’s group will strive to accomplish.
“It was a great year,” Pfaff said. “Obviously disappointing tonight. But I think it just got us good momentum. It puts our program as a basketball place for local kids that are doing the private school route. We got great young guys coming up and coming in, so I’m super excited about that.”
Meanwhile, the dance continues for Oakland High, which felt slighted by its low seed in the Division I bracket. But if the Wildcats keep winning, they can still get to where they want to go.
“I keep telling them, ‘13 seed, take it a little personal,’” Watkins said. “I don’t think we’re a 13 seed, but the powers that be do. So we’re going to try to shock a couple of people. One down, we got four more to go for our goal.”