Win-and-in: California controls postseason fate entering final EBAL week
SAN RAMON — After a stretch of heartbreaking losses the past few weeks, California’s boys basketball team enters the final week of the regular season with its postseason hopes still alive.
Needing to hit the .500 mark in league play or overall, the Grizzlies will have to win one of their final two East Bay Athletic League games, against Amador Valley at home on Tuesday or vs. De La Salle in Concord on Friday, to reach the North Coast Section playoffs.
A preseason favorite to win the EBAL, California’s season has not gone to plan. But even with the daunting task ahead, the San Ramon school remains confident that its season won’t end after this week.
“We have one home game and one away game against two really good teams. But these are measuring stick games for where we want to be,” California coach Steve Ohlmeyer told the Bay Area News Group on Saturday. “I don’t want to say we put ourselves in this position. But we are where we are and what we do with it is really our destiny. I think after beating Foothill, we’re a little looser, feel a little more confident in how we’re playing.
“We just have to go in for 32 minutes and do everything we can to get a win.”
The Grizzlies went into the season as one of the favorites to win the league, led by Santa Clara commit Brayde Kuykendall. California also brought back senior forward Emeka Ifediora, sophomore standout Logan Weger, and added highly-touted Dublin transfer Jaiden Jones to a team that qualified for the NCS Open playoffs last season.
After playing a tough showcase schedule to start this season, the Grizzlies established themselves as one of the area’s top teams after defeating Central Coast Section powerhouse St. Ignatius just days before league play started.
California opened EBAL play with a solid win over Dublin, but what followed was an unexpected twist.
The Grizzlies went on to lose four consecutive games and five of their next six, all of which came in the same fashion. In all six contests, California started slow, recovered to make the game close in the final period and fell as its opponent walked away with a notable win on their resume.
But while the losses have certainly been a setback for California, Ohlmeyer believes the team can learn from the losing streak.
“Playoffs are never a guarantee, but I feel like we can learn from some of these experiences,” Ohlmeyer said. “Our league is extremely, extremely challenging. And you look at the score sometimes, and you go, ‘Gee, how did that happen?’ But it’s just the way these teams are. There’s a lot of great coaches, a lot of great players, that make these games so competitive that we have to be prepared every night.”
After beating Foothill by 21 points on Friday night, the Grizzlies will now control their own destiny in their final two games of the regular season.
The goal is simple: win-and-in.
California has played better as of late, winning two of its last three games while holding all three opponents to under 60 points. The Grizzlies believe their recent wins over Livermore and Foothill are important confidence boosters going into this week.
“I feel like Friday night really helped boost our confidence up. The last two Fridays we’ve played pretty well and got a couple of wins,” Ohlmeyer said. “I really feel this team does not want the season to end after the next two games. I think they want to continue to play forward. I think this gave us a little bit of more motivation and kind of a shot in the arm after beating Foothill.”
California will have its best shot to clinch the postseason in its matchup with Amador Valley on Tuesday, but it won’t be a cakewalk. The Dons are coming off a heartbreaking loss to Dougherty Valley on Friday and need a win to stay in the league playoff hunt.
The Pleasanton school is expecting nothing less than a fierce challenge.
“I plan on it being a dogfight. They’re going to come in and play hard,” Amador Valley coach Willis Gardner said. “They’re coming for us and it should be a really good game.”