Basketball Recap: West Oso Finds Playoff Glory Versus Bishop

With a playoff win on the line, West Oso rose to the challenge on Tuesday. They strolled past the Bishop Badgers with points to spare, taking the game 72-56. For the Bears, this counts as revenge for the 56-39 win the Badgers walked away with the last time they faced one another back in December of 2023.

Jerald Harper

Rebounds

01/28/25 vs Aransas Pass	15
12/06/24 vs Pharr-San Juan-Alamo	13
11/19/24 @ Tuloso-Midway	13
02/18/25 @ Bishop	11
01/10/25 @ Taft	11
+ 29 more games

West Oso's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Jerald Harper led the charge by dropping a double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Harper is becoming a predictor of West Oso's success: when he posts at least eight boards the team is 16-4 (and 7-9 when he doesn't). Another player making a difference was C'Angelo Richardson, who went 8-for-19 on his way to 18 points along with six assists and six rebounds.

West Oso was working as a unit and finished the game with 25 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since the start of last season.

Loss or not, Bishop got some senior leadership from Kristian Ramos and James Garcia. Ramos dropped a double-double with 31 points and ten boards, while Garcia almost dropped a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. The matchup was Garcia's seventh in a row with at least 17 points.

West Oso is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games. That's provided a nice bump to their 23-13 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.8 points over those games. Bishop's record now sits at 21-13.

Looking ahead, West Oso will take on Rio Hondo at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Rio Hondo knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past four contests -- so hopefully West Oso likes a good challenge. Bishop does not have any more games scheduled as of now.