The Campolindo varsity boys basketball team captured their first win of this year’s Diablo Athletic League (DAL) playoff tournament. They will face 2nd seeded Clayton Valley in a highly anticipated rematch against the Ugly Eagles in the semi-final game on Thursday, February 8.

In the Cougars game on Tuesday, they were matched up against College Park, a team that the Cougars played back in December. The first game, like their most recent outing, was a back-and-forth game that ended in a Campo win.

The main issue for Campo on Tuesday was how many turnovers they had throughout the game. The Cougars had a total of 10 turnovers in the game. Due to this sloppy play, nobody could really get it going. Junior guard Gavin Rendle, who led the team in points (22) in their last game against Northgate, only finished this game with 7. Rendle’s theory for why nobody could get going was that because it was a playoff game, the atmosphere felt different than a regular game. “All playoff games are close.”

The main difference between the teams’ first meeting and their second was the momentum for each team going into it. Before the first matchup, College Park was in the midst of a below-average season, something that they became familiar with in the past couple years. The Falcons had a 3-5 record, which only turned to 3-6 after their 57-50 loss to the Cougars. Campo, on the other hand, was rolling. In the month of December, the Cougars had a 10-2 record. They had a total record of 7-2 when they met the Falcons and didn’t stop there. They put together 12 more wins after that game and earned the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye in the DAL postseason tournament.

But by the time the Cougars and Falcons met for the second time, their stories had flipped. The Falcons had won 7 out of their last 8 games, earning a tough win against Clayton Valley along the way. A mere day before they played the Cougars, College Park had a field day against Berean Christian, winning that game by 33 points. The Cougars had a completely opposite story coming into this game. They had lost their last 2, both of which were against tough teams, Northgate and Ygnacio Valley. They needed to rebound. What better way to do so then to play a team you had already beat during the regular season.

The game started with a College Park possession, as they won the tip-off. As Falcon’s senior Connor Whittles attempted to drive to the basket, he was pick-pocketed by Rendle. This became a familiar sight throughout the game, Rendle ended up with 4 steals in the game, a career high. “Dyer preaches [defense] every game… you gotta make plays on defense… that’s the recipe to win,” said Rendle.

Senior center Tim Smith had the first points for the Cougars. He also had the most points for Campo, finishing the game with 14.

For every point that the Cougars scored in the first quarter, the Falcons matched with ones of their own. The first quarter ended with College Park being up 14-13.

The second quarter was much of the same: back-and-forth. As the turnovers added up for the Cougars on offense, they managed to keep the game close through stellar defense.

At halftime, the two teams were tied at 25 points.

After a much needed intermission, where Coach Steven Dyer tried to rally his troops, the Cougars were back out on the court. Smith stated how Dyer told the team to “keep it up on defense and things will come our way.”
The Cougars took that message to heart. They only allowed the Falcons to score 4 points in the 3rd quarter. Campo more than quadrupled the Falcons’ points-scored with a monster quarter of 17 points, by far their best quarter of the game.

After a stellar second half, the Cougars finally pulled away with a tough 6-point victory. The final score was 51-45.