Today should be a big day in the Oakland Athletic League boys basketball race with two good matchups. McClymonds, the No. 1 team in our poll, travels to Fremont. The Tigers have had an up and down year but are a lot better than I think some our giving them credit for. Mack, for one, knows how dangerous this game could be. The last time the Warriors lost a game (outside of the state title game) was in the regular season finale last year on the road at Fremont. Also, with two league losses, the Tigers know they can’t continue to fall further in the hole if they still want a chance to earn one of the three OAL playoff spots.The other big game is No. 13 Skyline at No. 7 Oakland. For most of the preseason, Oakland looked like the second best team in the OAL to Mack. Now, Skyline’s starting to grab that role, having won 8 straight, including three straight against ranked opponents. A win here for the Titans sets up a possible first-place showdown Friday at Mack (if Mack gets past Fremont). An Oakland win ties them for second with Skyline and gives them another quality OAL victory. Should be fun stuff.

Also, on the girls side, Oakland Tech faces Castlemont. The Knights have looked like easily the best team in the OAL and Tech continues to struggle. Still, Tech is the defending champions and has a pretty good rivalry going with Castlemont. Expect an intense game there.

***UPDATE***
Guess I might as well update this post with what happened. Mack stayed undefeated with a wild 78-61 win. The Warriors actually trailed by 8 early in the third quarter, used a 14-0 run to take a six-point lead, then had to get a pair of clutch free throws by Frank Otis in the final minute and use pressure defense to not allow Fremont to get off a final shot so the game could go to overtime. Whoooosh!! I’m out of breath. Once in OT, Mack dominated as you can tell by the score. One scary moment was when Otis was fouled hard and went down and stayed down for 3-4 minutes. He eventually walked off and afterwards just said he had the wind knocked out of him. Otis finished with 21, Damario Simms had 18, William Cherry had 16 and Damon Powell had 15, including four dunks. Powell Lee had 18 for Fremont and James Albright had 14 points and 15 rebounds.

As for Skyline-Oakland, the Wildcats got the big home victory, 62-57. Damian Lillard had a game-high 22 points and P.J. Taylor had 13 for Oakland. Kwame Vaughn led Skyline with 17 points and Nefi Perdomo added 13, but the Titans couldn’t extend their winning streak to nine.

On the girls side, no big surprise as Castlemont rolled past Tech. They’re looking like the clear league favorite right now, but don’t sleep on Mack. The Warriors won again today, beating Fremont to go to 3-1 in league. A good game should be Friday when they play Skyline, which is also 3-1 after surviving a scare from Oakland to win 39-33.