Pinole Valley girls Tip Off, Bishop O'Dowd Showcase, NorCal Tip Off Classic signal start of 2023 Bay Area basketball
The San Francisco Bay Area's basketball season unofficially gets underway with two big boys events and one girls showcase.
It begins with the Bishop O’Dowd Thanksgiving Showcase featuring nine boys' games over two days starting Friday.
The 16th annual NorCal Tip Off Classic is a one-day boys event with nine games starting at 8 a.m. Saturday at Dublin High School and the Pinole Valley Tip Off is also Saturday and features seven games. .
The second-year event at O’Dowd’s sparkling second-year gymnasium starts Friday at 12:30 p.m. with Moreau Catholic-Hayward taking on Vanden-Fairfield at 12:30 p.m., followed by Oakland Tech versus Grant-Sacramento at 2 p.m. Moreau Catholic (23-7 last season) is ranked ninth in the SBLive NorCal Coast preseason rankings.
Bishop O'Dowd's state-of-art gym opened in 2022-23.
Courtesy photo: Bishop O'Dowd athletics
The NorCal Coast are four sections combined: Central Coast, North Coast, San Francisco and Oakland.
Dougherty Valley-San Ramon (27-4), the defending North Coast Section Division 1 champion and No. 1 Bay Area team in 2022-23, takes on Sheldon-Sacramento at 3:30, followed by a pair of Sac-Joaquin Section powers, Modesto Christian versus Davis at 5 p.m.
Friday’s action finishes off with host and No. 13 Bishop O’Dowd (16-12) playing defending state Division 3 champion Oakland (27-8) tipping off at 6:30 p.m. The Dragons will honor former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and former Police Chief LaRonne Armstong for their community service.
Schaaf is a Skyline-Oakland graduate and Armstrong, a former McClymonds-Oakland basketball player, is now an assistant coach at O’Dowd.
Seniors Leo Chapman, Samuel Chavarin and Tobias Aisien, along with junior Josh Green lead a promising O'Dowd squad. Graduation took most of Oakland's top players but Pinole Valley transfers Jonathan Chapple and Isaac Johnson should help.
O'Dowd senior guard Samuel Chavarin.
File photo: Eric Taylor
Saturday's schedule features a pair of Southern California powers in San Diego Section’s Torrey Pines and Campbell Hall, which previously boasted the NBA Holiday brothers, Jrue, Justin and Aaron.
Torrey Pines plays Inderkum-Sacramento at 2 p.m., followed by Oakland Tech versus Moreau Catholic (3:30 p.m.), Benicia against Bishop O’Dowd (5 p.m.) and Campbell Hall taking on Salesian-Richmond (6:30 p.m.). Salesian (26-9) is No. 11 in California according to SBLive Sports.
Check out all results live from O'Dowd here
* The NorCal Tip Off field is absolutely stacked, featuring eight state Top 25 teams, including including No. 5 Riordan versus Southern California power, No. 4 Roosevelt-Eastvale,. That game tips off at 2 p.m. The other big NorCal-SoCal matchup is state No. 15 De La Salle-Concord against 2022 state champion Centennial-Corona, ranked third preseason in California. That scheduled tip-off is 8:30 p.m.
Other games are Head-Royce of Oakland vs. Bellarmine (8 a.m.), Ygnacio Valley-Concord vs. Lincoln-Stockton (9:30 a.m.), Dublin vs. St. Ignatius (11 a.m.), Weston Ranch vs. Bakersfield Christian (12:30 p.m.), Vanden vs. No. 22 in state Clovis West (3:30 p.m.), No. 20 San Ramon Valley-Danville vs. Capital Christian-Sacramento (5:15 p.m.) and No. 8 Mitty vs. No. 14 Branson-Ross (7 p.m.).
There are at least 11 seniors in the one-day event who have committed to Division I college programs, headed by Centennial’s Eric Freeny (UCLA) and Carter Bryant (Arizona).
The others are Roosevelt’s Darnez Slater (Colorado State), Branson’s Jase Butler (Illinois), Mitty’s Gavin Ripp (San Diego) and Tyler Jones (UC Riverside), Riordan’s Zion Sensley (St. Mary’s), Kaia Berridge (Evansville) and Jordy McKenzie (Eastern Washington), Vanden’s Tyler Thompson (Montana) and Weston Ranch-Stockton’s Mateen Rafiq (Cornell).
Nationally-ranked junior prospects include Roosevelt’s Brayden Burries, Riordan’s Jasir Rencher, Branson’s Semetri Carr and De La Salle’s Alec Blair.
Centennial will need to deal with one of the top juniors in the country, De La Salle 6-6 wing Alec Blair (33)
Photo: Greg Jungferman
At Pinole Valley, seven games and five Bay Area ranked teams are featured, finished off with the 7:30 p.m. tilt between No. 2 Oakland Tech and No. 5 San Ramon Valley. Tech, the defending state D1 champion, is led by the trio of Taliyah Logwood and sophomores Terri’A Russell and Jhai Johnson, the latter a 6-3 wing and daughter of NFL quarterback Josh Johnson.
San Ramon Valley returns nine key players from last year’s 28-5 squad, including Southern Utah signee Sierra Chambers, Cal Poly signee Avery Knapp and Sofia Bowes (13 points, 11 rebounds per game in 2022-23).
The other games are St. Mary’s-Berkeley versus Dublin (10:30 a.m.), Pinole Valley versus Eureka (noon), Redwood-Larkspur against Cornerstone Christian-Antioch (1:30 p.m.), Acalanes-Lafayette vs. Antelope (3 p.m.), Bishop O’Dowd versus McClatchy-Sacramento (4:30 p.m.) and Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa versus St. Mary’s-Stockton (6 p.m.).
O’Dowd is ranked No. 3 in the NorCal Coast, Newman No. 7 and Acalanes No. 9. St. Mary’s-Stockton boasts ESPN’s No. 7 ranked senior in the nation, Jordan Lee, a Texas signee. She scored 47 last season against Oakland Tech in a NorCal final defeat. Newman returns Kate Schat (15.2 points per game) and may have Brazilian transfer Taissa Queiroz, who has college offers from Cal, St. Mary’s and San Diego State.
Taliyah Logwood, Oakland Tech
File photo: Dennis Lee
