| | Published March 4th, 2009
| Miramonte Boys and Campo Girls Advance to NCS Semi-Finals Tonight the boys play at home while the girls are away
| | By Conrad Bassett |  | | Miramontes' Payam pump fakes two Acalanes defenders in their Friday night victory
pictured: David Gomez (33), Payam Vadi (22), Eric Obeysekere (35) Photo Jordan Fong
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The NCS Division III playoffs looked like a DFAL tournament on Friday night as the Miramonte boys beat the Acalanes Dons 66-49 and the Campolindo girls defeated Miramonte 71-63 in quarter final action in their home courts.
The Dons, by virtue of their earlier defeat of Campolindo, headed to Orinda looking for another upset.
The game was one of several momentum changes with the Matadors having the final one. In the first period, Miramonte jumped off to an 8-2 lead behind Eric Obeysekere who scored four points on his way to a 22 point, 10 rebound evening. The Dons fought back by scoring the last five points of the period and the first six of the second led by David Gomez who quickly hit two threes and two other shots in the run.
The Dons went up nine at 26-17 when Zach Bloom drilled a three but then the pendulum swung back to the Mats who ended the period by scoring 15 of the last 17 points to erase the deficit.
The third period saw the Dons again come back with eight straight points behind Taylor Caldwell who finished the night with 11 points and 13 rebounds. The Matadors took the lead for good at 39-38 on a Davis Louie jumper at 3:02 to go. The teams traded baskets and Acalanes cut the lead to 48-45 with 6:06 left in the fourth on a Steve Maze layup and free throw before the Matadors pulled away scoring the next 12 in a row punctuated by an Obeysekere block with Louie grabbing the rebound and firing a strike to Chris Hatfield who finished with a layup.
Dave Brown's Mats are hosting Piner tonight, Wednesday, March 4.
The Dons finished the season at 15-13.
On the girls' side, it was the third meeting of the season between the local rivals. The Cougars scored early and often, jumping off to an 18-7 lead and fighting off several Matador challenges to head to a semi-final matchup on the road against #1 seed Bishop O'Dowd tonight.
The middle two periods were played very closely as the Cougars pulled to a double-digit lead early in the third period. However, behind Stephanie Golden's hot hand, the Mats closed the deficit to 51-48 heading to the fourth period. Golden scored the first basket of the fourth (she finished with a game high 30 points) and it was a one-point game.
Then the momentum switched as the Cougars opened up the lead with Stephanie Triggas hitting a couple of key three-point jumpers and Annie Ward adding to her team high 24 points.
Meghan Ringer added 14 points and had 8 rebounds while Triggas had eight assists for Campo. Golden added 11 rebounds and three blocks on the Miramonte side.
The Lady Mats finished at 19-9.
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 | | Liza Katz presses the ball after getting a rebound Photo Jordan Fong
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA