| | Published March 14th, 2012
| Lamorinda Prep Basketball Seasons Ends in CIF Tournament
| | By Conrad Bassett |  | | Derek Lin Photos Kevin Nguyen
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The last two weeks have been busy for Lamorinda boys' high school basketball. Both Campolindo and Miramonte advanced to the Northern California CIF championships that began a week ago.
Campo hosted Foothill (Rancho Seco) and Miramonte traveled to Sierra (Manteca).
Campolindo's season came to an end on March 7 in the first round of the CIF tournament. Campo lost 75-55 to Foothill.
Campo had a brief lead at 12-10. However, Foothill scored the next 15 points in a row and never looked back.
Freshman Matt O'Reilly led Campo with 14 points. Senior Griffin Piatt had 15 rebounds in his final Cougar game. Campo finished with a 22-7 record and won the DFAL championship.
Head coach Matt Watson said he was happy with the season. "I would not change anything that happened this season, each kid is so special and I am extremely proud of them."
The Mats fared better in their game against Sierra, forcing overtime on their way to a win. Charging back from down ten points with two minutes to play, Miramonte tied it at 60. The Mats held off Sierra, 73-68.
Junior Kiran Shastri again led all scorers with 38 points.
Coach Dave Brown was pleased. "Our guards Derek Lin, Matt Lim, and Joey Goodreault did an amazing job pressuring the ball and forcing turnovers down the stretch. Our guys never gave up. They fought through a lot of adversity, and it paid off in a big way."
The Mats advanced to face the #1 seed Fightin' Irish of Sacred Heart Cathedral, the top Division III team in California on March 10.
Goodreault hit a long three within a few seconds of the start to give the Mats the lead. They kept the lead until 5:42 in the first when the Irish jumped in front.
The Mats stayed close behind the sharp shooting of Ross Anderson, who scored ten points early. The Mats came back to lead, 25-24, midway through the second. However, Sacred Heart Cathedral finished the half on an 18-2 run, to build a 17 point lead, and went on to win 90-57.
Shastri had 18 points and Anderson added 14. The Mats finished the season at 20-10.
Miramonte assistant coach, and former Campolindo player, Steven Dyer enjoyed his first season as a coach. "We played a very good team tonight. It is always hard to have the season end with a loss, but we had some great moments and next year's team should also be very good."
Each team qualified for the NorCal tournament because they advanced to the North Coast Section semi-finals. Campolindo and Miramonte met for the third time this season in the NCS semi-final game on Wednesday, February 29.
The boys' Lamorinda rivalry game lived up to all expectations as the host Cougars came from behind to win 79-72.
Shastri led all scorers with 32 points, including all of the Mats' 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Campo was led by junior Matt McCue who came off the bench to spark two rallies-a critical one at the end of the game when he hit four key free throws. McCue finished with 22 points.
The Campo boys advanced to take on the #1 seed, Bishop O'Dowd at St. Mary's College for the NCS Division III title on March 3. Despite an early effort from the Cougars, O'Dowd maintained a double digit lead to win, 56-43.
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 | | Joey Goodreault
|  | | Griffin Piatt had 15 points in Campo's loss to Foothill.
|  | | Matt McCue had 22 points in the NCS Semi-finals against Miramonte.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA