Brethren Christian Fails to Measure Up in Final : Division V boys: Size of Robinson and Battles is the key to Emeryville Emery’s 74-47 victory in the championship game.
OAKLAND — The game was basically over the moment Emeryville Emery’s Darrell Robinson and Endiecko Battles walked onto the court for warm-ups.
Right then, it was apparent Brethren Christian would be no match for Robinson, a 7-foot, 270-pound center, and Battles, a 6-8, 260 forward. This was clearly a team that could throw its weight around.
True to form, Emery proved to be a tall order for tiny Brethren Christian and rolled to an easy 74-47 victory Saturday in the State Division V boys’ championship game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
Emery (30-5) is one of the smallest public high schools in the Bay Area--155 students--but Robinson and Battles certainly loomed large in the title game.
Robinson finished with 31 points, 18 rebounds and five blocked shots. More important, he made Brethren Christian players adjust their shots any time they dared drive the lane.
Battles picked up the slack in the third quarter when Robinson got into foul trouble. He finished with 18 points and five rebounds.
“They were big,†said Brethren Christian Coach Richard Thomas. “We tried our best with what we had, but we were no match for that kind of size and talent.â€
Brethren Christian (27-7) had faced only one player, 6-6 Sonora center Chris Campbell, with any size all season. Robinson and Battles were bigger and more talented than Campbell.
“It was difficult trying to shoot over them,†said Scott Thomas, who led Brethren Christian with 25 points.
The unenviable task of trying to guard Robinson, the leading scorer in state history, went to Brethren Christian center Andy Brown. Brown, 6-5, tried his best to keep Robinson from posting up inside and was often seen leaning on him.
“You had to take a couple of steps to establish position behind him, and then a couple of more steps to get around him after a shot,†Brown said. “The guy was huge.â€
Predictably, Robinson had his way with the smaller Warriors from the outset. Emery had a 10-2 lead three minutes into the game and extended it to 17-2 when Robinson scored on the first of four tremendous dunks with 2 minutes 35 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
“There’s not a whole lot of adjustments or coaching that you can do in a situation like that,†Richard Thomas said. “We knew we were going to have to hit some three-pointers early if we were going to stay in the game. What really hurt is when we got Robinson in foul trouble, Battles stepped it up big time.â€
Robinson, who ended his four-year career with 3,359 points, said he didn’t mind when Brethren triple-teamed him and got physical inside in an effort to slow him down. He wanted to go out in style before heading to Arkansas.
“I wanted my last game to be my best game,†he said. “The atmosphere was intense, but to be honest, our practices are more physical than this game.â€
Robinson also made it clear that Emery is not a one-man team. Brethren Christian found out the hard way that Emery has scoring potential from five different positions.
“I knew the other kids did a good job of supporting Robinson and potentially could score,†Thomas said. “But we had to give up something by double- and triple-teaming Robinson.â€
Thomas’ son, Scott, and forward Reggie Davis were the only effective players for Brethren Christian on offense. Thomas had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and Davis added 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Brethren Christian guards Seth Carey and Richard Mendoza managed to hit only one three-point shot each. Carey had averaged 9.2 points and Mendoza 10.2. The Warriors made only three of 24 three-point attempts.
Afterward, Richard Thomas reflected upon the season and its effect on the private school in Cypress.
“This was the biggest thing to happen in the history of the school,†which opened in 1947, he said. “We had great fan and student support all season. We improved every game.
“It was a special season for me because I got to coach my son. I thought Scott showed what he could do today against a very good team. We won two very close games (48-43 over Fontana Ambassador Christian in overtime and 47-46 over Palos Verdes Chadwick) to get here.
“We had a great run, and it was a lot of fun. But we finally met our match against a very good team today.â€
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