Preview: Berkeley Yellowjackets vs. Bishop O'Dowd Dragons
Berkeley is on a nine-game streak of home wins, while the Dragons are on a four-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Berkeley Yellowjackets will take on the Bishop O'Dowd Dragons at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Berkeley has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.
Berkeley put the finishing touches on their seventh blowout victory of the season on Wednesday. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat San Leandro 73-44 on the road. Given Berkeley's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 82nd, while the Pirates are ranked 685th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, even though Castro Valley scored an imposing 66 points on Tuesday, Bishop O'Dowd still came out on top. Bishop O'Dowd took down the Trojans 82-66.
Bishop O'Dowd had a senior duo take command as Samuel Chavarin dropped a double-double on 21 points and 12 rebounds and Leo Chapman scored 24 points along with six rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Chavarin has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Tobias Aisien, who scored nine points along with seven rebounds and four steals.
Berkeley is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 17-6 record this season. As for Bishop O'Dowd, their win bumped their record up to 16-6.
Berkeley couldn't quite finish off the Dragons in their previous meeting back in January and fell 60-58. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Chavarin, who dropped a double-double on 20 points and 18 rebounds. Now that Berkeley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
