Author: Stephanie Hammon

A special set of circumstances led to a special night for Bishop O’Dowd High guard Paris Austin on Wednesday.

The Boise State-bound senior set school records with 43 points and 12 3-pointers in a 108-77 win over Piedmont.

Paris Austin scored 43 points and made 12 3-pointers against Piedmont.

Austin’s big night came as the Dragons moved 6-foot-11 forward Ivan Rabb to point guard for the game and were forced to play with a smaller rotation than normal after a recent grueling trip back East.

“He was very confident and all the shots he took were good ones,” O’Dowd coach Lou Richie said.

Austin has already been congratulated for his feat by the previous school record holder, Jasen Powell. Now a trainer with the Los Angeles Clippers, Powell scored 41 points in three quarters for the Dragons in 1990. Rabb scored 40 in a game two years ago as a sophomore.

“Of all the records in the Bay Area, to have the scoring record at Bishop O’Dowd is pretty special,” Richie said. “Ivan did a great job of finding his best friend and it just kind of worked out. There a was a lot of attention on Ivan and Ivan is a great facilitator.”

Austin’s 24 attempts from beyond the arc were also a school record. He played 29 minutes.

The Dragons, fresh off a third-place finish at the prestigious Pro Bass Tournament in Missouri and a Martin Luther King Day victory over national No. 3 Wheeler-Georgia in Massachusetts, only suited up eight players against Piedmont. Two of the players that sat were starters.

“There were some injuries and some other things,” Richie said. “It just felt like last night was the right time to take care of them.”

Richie also thought it was a good time to give Rabb, one of the top recruits in the country, a break from battling inside. The senior responded with 14 assists and just three turnovers.

Rabb’s assists may also be a school single-game record. Richie can’t remember anyone ever having more in the 14 years he has been with the program.

As a team, O’Dowd hit 18 3-pointers and was one point away from tying the school record for most points in a game.

“The kids had fun and that’s the most important thing,” Richie said. “We’re trying to find a game within the game and still try to be respectful to our opponent.”

Eleven East Bay basketball players have been nominated for the McDonald’s All-American games and 10 of them are from Bishop O’Dowd. Asha Thomas and Aisia Robertson, both four-year varsity players for the O’Dowd girls, were nominated for the girls game along with MaAne’ Mosley of St. Mary’s. Thomas and Mosley will be teammates at Cal next year, and Robertson is headed to Kansas.

On the boys side, all eight of the seniors on the O’Dowd roster made the nomination list. The group is headed by Ivan Rabb, a near lock to be one of 24 players eventually selected for the April 1 game at Chicago’s United Center. Rabb has yet to make his college commitment. Also on the nominee list are Paris Austin, Arinze Chidom, Franklin Longrus, Jeevin Sandhu, Isaiah Thomas, Alex Zhou and Austin Walker.

Once again, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend will offer some of the best matchups you’ll see before the postseason. A few of them will be at the MLK Classic, hosted by De La Salle at Cal’s Haas Pavilion on Monday. The event is in its 18th year and features some of the top boys teams and players in the state.

Highlighting the slate is De La Salle vs. Chaminade-West Hills, the defending Division III state champion, at 5:45 p.m. and upstart Moreau Catholic against perennial South Bay power Archbishop Mitty-San Jose at 7:30 p.m.

De La Salle is off to an 11-1 start, playing at a faster pace than the defensive-minded Spartans teams of the past. Jordan Ratinho, Vince Romeo and Nikhil Peters have led the way for the Spartans. Chaminde is 14-2 with its two losses coming by a combined five points.

Moreau Catholic reached the Division IV state final last year with almost exclusively underclassmen. Their top players, Oscar Frayer and Damari Milstead, are both back as juniors. Frayer, a Cal commit, will get to play on his future home court. The Mariners will have to stop Mitty big man Ben Kone.

El Cerrito and Berkeley renew an old rivalry to kick off the event while Newark Memorial and Salesian both play teams from the Sac-Joaquin Section in the middle of the day.

Here’s the full lineup:

10:30 a.m.: Berkeley vs. El Cerrito
12:15 p.m.: Franklin-Elk Grove vs. Newark Memorial
2 p.m.: Salesian vs. St. Mary’s-Stockton
3:45 p.m.: Sacramento vs. Sacred Heart Cathedral
5:45 p.m.: De La Salle vs. Chaminade-West Hills
7:30 p.m.: Archbishop Mitty vs. Moreau Catholic

TICKET INFORMATION

PRESALE available this week at the DLS bookstore or online: General Admission bleacher seating – $7/Adults, $5/students, seniors, children; Reserved Chair back Seating – $15 – includes all day in/out access

GAME DAY: General Admission bleacher seating – $10/Adults, $5/students, seniors, children; Reserved Chairback Seating – $20 and includes all day in/out access; Courtside – $30 for each game and includes all day in/out access

The games will also be streamed online at www.delasalletv.com.

The local basketball community continues to make sure that Rodney Frazier, the slain Richmond High point guard,  is not forgotten. Last week, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and some of his players attended the Oilers’ home opener and offered encouraging words to Rodney’s teammates beforehand.

On Thursday, there will be a brief ceremony to honor Rodney and show support for the Richmond team and coaches before a game with Fairfield at the Vontoure Spartan Classic at De La Salle. “We can’t let Rodney become ‘just another statistic.’ We truly are all in this together,” wrote De La Salle coach Frank Allocco in an email. Allocco was a speaker at a peace rally  in Richmond  to honor Frazier last month. Several local basketball teams showed attended the rally.