ORINDA – Miramonte outlasted visiting Northgate 46-44 on Friday in a boys basketball game that could have North Coast Section Open Division implications.
Miramonte improved to 20-3 overall and 7-2 in the Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division. Its only two NCS losses are to Northgate on Jan. 18 and to 20-1 Campolindo, which Miramonte will face again on Feb. 12.
“I’ve got a lot of friends chirping at me saying ‘Coach, you might be an Open team,” Miramonte’s Chris Lavdiotis said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, if you beat Campo and Northgate, you’re Open.’ It’s like, ‘Maybe.’ I mean, there’s a lot of games to play.
“The most important thing is here,” Lavdiotis added, pointing to his forehead. “We beat another highly-ranked team who’s got a lot of attention in state. … I think mentally it’s a huge win because we earned that win. We didn’t back our way into it. We didn’t play sloppy. We were gritty.”
Northgate fell to 18-5 and 7-3 in the DAL Foothill Division. Its only NCS losses are to Campolindo, Miramonte and Clayton Valley Charter.
“In the D-2 playoffs or in Open, we’ve got to continue to work,” Northgate coach Michael Shaughnessy said. “We can’t allow a game like this, a tough loss, to set us back.”
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Northgate had to make its way back from two big runs on Friday.
“To start the game, they hit us with a haymaker, an 11-2 run,” Shaughnessy said. “The second half, they came out again with another run. That was the difference in the game, I think.”
Holding a 21-20 advantage at halftime, Miramonte went on a 12-3 run to start the second half. A basket by the Matadors’ Tyler Dutto gave his team a 37-25 lead with 2 minutes, 23 seconds left in the third quarter, but Northgate had a 10-0 run of its own to end the quarter.
The fourth quarter was tight. With 2:32 remaining, Miramonte’s Marcus Robinson sank his second 3-pointer of the period for a 45-42 Matadors advantage.
“I hit the first one, and I felt the second one coming, back-to-back,” the 6-foot-2 Robinson said about the shots from beyond the arc, which occurred on two straight possessions. “It felt really good.”
Dutto connected on 1 of 2 free throws 30 seconds later for a four-point Miramonte advantage.
A steal and layup by Northgate’s Thayne Merrill cut the lead to 46-44 with 58 seconds left, but those would prove to be the last points of the game.
Northgate was able to get a last shot in the final seconds, but the three-point attempt from the right side of the frontcourt bounced off the back rim.
James Frye scored a game-high 13 points for Miramonte, and Robinson added 12, all on three-pointers. He also had three assists and three steals. Caden Breznikar had 10 points for the Matadors.
Merrill had a team-high 12 points for Northgate, and teammate Dylan Golan added 10.
