To
Paris Austin it was obvious. Despite dribbling at full tilt with two defenders in his path, the
Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland, Calif.) senior guard knew exactly what he was doing and where he was going.
"I saw
Ivan (Rabb) in the corner of my eye," he said. "It was going up."
Austin lobbed the ball at the front of the rim, Rabb, running full tilt, grabbed it and dunked it with two hands behind his head. The crowd at packed St. Mary's College erupted.
Playing in their final North Coast Section game, the talented duo led the Dragons (24-4) to their fourth straight title in entertaining fashion with a 70-61 Division III championship win over defending Northern California Division IV champion
Moreau Catholic (Hayward, Calif.).
Austin, a 5-foot-10 point guard headed to Boise State, scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half when the Dragons held a slim 39-36 lead. In the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter, it was all Rabb, a 6-10 McDonald's All-American.
Rabb scored 12 in the fourth and 16 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, to go along with 19 rebounds and six blocks. Five of his 11 baskets were dunks.
It wasn't a particularly pretty win for the nation's No. 15 team,
according to MaxPreps, but it earned its 17th NCS title and fifth in six years.
"I wish we had played better," Bishop O'Dowd coach Lou Richie said. "And I wouldn't say we played tougher than Moreau. They got most of the 50-50 balls. But maybe this will be a wake-up call. We're going to need to play better."
Moreau, which got 20 points from Cal-bound junior
Oscar Frayer and 16 by
Damari Milstead, might have played well enough to "earn" an Open Division berth in the Northern California playoffs.
Moreau coach Frank Knight would prefer to stay in Division III. His team lost in the state finals last year "and we'd like another shot to get it right. But if they put us in the open we'll make the best of it. Maybe we'll have another shot at (O'Dowd)."
The Mariners hung with O'Dowd most of the way behind Frayer, a 6-6 wing who made three three-pointers and put down three emphatic dunks.
But a 10-2 run late in the third quarter put O'Dowd up 51-40 and they maintained it most of the rest of the way. The Dragons used their size advantage to score most of their points in the paint, including 11 points and 10 rebounds from 6-9 senior
Isaiah Thomas.
Richie, whose team has played one of the toughest schedules in the state, if not the country, thinks Moreau and any other non-section champions, should stay in their division.
"Just like El Cerrito should have stayed in Division III last year," he said. "That just seems fair."
What hasn't been fair to O'Dowd opponents has been the 1-2 punch of Rabb and Austin for four years. The childhood friends will go down as one of the best combinations in NCS history.
"They've definitely made their mark," Richie said. "What we saw today we've been seeing for the last four years."
