Highlanders drop two close games
Piedmont High School’s boys basketball team fell to the Berkeley High School Yellowjackets at Binks Gymnasium on Jan. 15, 63-56.
The Highlanders (11-5, 1-2 West Alameda County Conference) had their chances against the 8-7 Yellowjackets.
The game started slow for Piedmont, with Berkeley getting an 8-0 lead before Dillon Casey began to score layups and a few three-pointers. Berkeley led 21-15 at the end of the first quarter.
The Highlanders turned up the heat in the second quarter, with great defense from P.J. Brayer and incredible offensive plays by Casey, Lucian Fang Ring, and Beach Lorin. The Yellowjackets took a 33-31 lead into the locker room.
Akash Bornstein was the clear star of the third quarter. His athleticism led to multiple steals, points, and assists. With Lorin out for the quarter, Bornstein, Casey, Brayer, Cash Panico and Will Hinman played well. Berkeley led 48-47 entering the fourth.
“I feel like I played good, but I had two costly turnovers,” Bornstein said.
Brayer started the fourth quarter by giving Piedmont its first lead with two free throws. Bornstein continued to make steals, but it wasn’t enough: the Yellowjackets took back the lead and kept it the rest of the way.
“When it comes down to it, it’s really about how we finish — and if we aren’t finishing well then we don’t win the game,” Bornstein said.
This is Piedmont’s second loss in a row. On Jan. 13, the Highlanders lost to the rival Bishop O’Dowd (10-5) at Bishop O’Dowd.
“Games like this are good for us. We had six (consecutive) wins up until this point,” coach Ben Spencer said. “It’s a humbling experience, when you start to roll like that with six wins you start taking plays off feeling like you don’t have to work as hard, so a loss like that gets us back and ready.”
Fang Ring scored two three-pointers to start the game, and Piedmont took the lead despite the extremely intense press defense the Dragons utilized against them. Bishop O’Dowd missed multiple free throw opportunities, giving the Highlanders the lead at the end of the first quarter, 11-6.
“We came out in that first quarter, I thought we played pretty soft, we did a good job keeping them under 10 points, we rebounded well, we paid attention to what we wanted to do defensively for our game plan,” Spencer said. “In the second quarter, they started playing really physical and we started getting scared a little, stopped running good offense, weren’t getting back on defense, weren’t rebounding.”
Bishop O’Dowd began to bring up the intensity, taking the lead. Panico took a fall blocking a dunk, and Piedmont began to slip up with bad passes and shots. Naas Griffin scored 16 points for O’Dowd in the quarter, and the Dragons ended the half leading, 32-21.
“O’Dowd is known for their length and athleticism, so they were very aggressive on defense and they made it pretty tough,” Casey said. “We really had one player that played well, and that was (Fang Ring).”
The Highlanders weren’t done yet. Fang Ring continued to perform exceptionally, scoring nine points for Piedmont. Brayer and Lorin also contributed, and the quarter ended with Bishop O’Dowd up, 50-39.
“(Fang Ring) was awesome tonight, he’s kind of been in a shooting slump the past three weeks, but he broke out of that,” Spencer said. “He was fearless, and he was the one offensive bright spot we had. I thought our three captains, (Casey, Brayer, Lorin), didn’t shoot the ball well offensively and got punked on the offensive side of the ball.”
In the fourth quarter, however, the Dragons took a large lead with Griffin continuing to score on the Highlanders resulting in 29 points in the game.
It’s important for the team to “be more physical,” Spencer said.
“We have a ton more league games, so we can still win out,” Bornstein said.