Beach Lorin’s 3-pointer in overtime gave Piedmont High School’s boys basketball team the lead for good as the Highlanders rallied for an 82-79 win at University-San Francisco on Jan. 11.
“I was just open on the wing, calling for the ball and Cash (Panico) did a nice drive on the baseline and he swung it and it was just open and I knew it was going in,” Lorin said. “I felt it.”
Piedmont is now 8-5 on the season.
The Highlanders and the Red Devils have been a pretty good rivalry of late, meeting every season and also twice in the North Coast Section playoffs. University beat Piedmont last year in the NCS Division 3 championship game.
This game was tight in the first half, with the Red Devils holding a 28-27 lead. University focused its defense on Dillon Casey and held him to just two points on five shots from the floor in the half. Ravi Silverberg took on the scoring load, scoring 13 in the half. “I think their game plan was trying to take him out,” Silverberg said of Casey. “Once I saw that, I had so many open lanes. I just kept attacking, attacking. It was there. The drive-and- kick was there. My own attack was there. I was getting to the line. It felt comfortable.”
Dillon Casey (left) is guarded by Brandon Chen 
Beach Lorin (20) makes a pass over Trent Hawkins (2)
However, the Red Devils always have depth and eventually that seems to pay off in their full-court pressure. The third quarter started with an 11-0 University run over the first two minutes, 42 seconds of the quarter before Piedmont coach Ben Spencer had to call a timeout. Casey came out of the timeout with an aggressive drive to the basket for a layup to end the run.
But the Red Devils maintained the lead through the quarter, ending the period up 52-40.
Piedmont has seen those runs before and had trouble recovering from them. Further, Casey fouled out with 4:15 left in regulation. The Highlanders hung tough though and Silverberg hit a 3-pointer late to tie the score at 66-66 and force overtime.
Jason Morris (24) shoots over Ravi Silverberg (3) 
Akash Bornstein (4) focuses while guarding Lucas Lau (5)
“We’re young,” Spencer said, explaining how his team held on after the Red Devils run. “You get seasoned players where that happens and they say, ‘We’ve done this, we’re not going to come back and win.’ The best thing about a young team is they forget quick. To see a young team grow up like that in the last three games has been tremendous.”
In the overtime, Piedmont was the team that got out to the lead and forced University to try to come back. Lucas Lau nearly did it all by himself. Lau scored 36 points in the game including 10 of the Red Devils 13 in overtime. A pair of 3-pointers cut Piedmont’s lead down to three but when he tried a final 3-pointer near the end, it missed, giving the Highlanders the win.
Silverberg scored 28 points to lead Piedmont. He also had nine rebounds. P.J. Brayer had 21 points and 14 rebounds. Lorin came off the bench to score 10. Casey finished with 10 as well.
Jason Morris had 15 points and 10 rebounds for University. Leo Felder had 12 points. The bench, always a strength for the Red Devils, scored just six points.
“It was a team win,” Spencer said. “You have Beach who hit the three, you have P.J. who got rebounds and drove and had a couple of and-ones, you had Cash, his first game where he played minutes. It was a team win, top-to-bottom.”