Clayton Valley Tops Campolindo With Furious Finish
A late surge saved the Ugly Eagles on Thursday night.
In a game of runs, it was the Clayton Valley Ugly Eagles who threw the last haymaker, fueled by their star junior.
Elijah Perryman scored a game-high 25 points, none more important than the two that came on his drive to the basket with 1:03 to go as Clayton Valley (12-4, 3-0 DAL) finished on a 21-5 run to top the Campolindo Cougars 52-46 on Thursday night.
“I haven’t seen someone with his vision on the court since Aidan Mahaney,” head coach Frank Allocco Jr. said. “He sees everything, he’s unselfish, but he can also dominate a game with his scoring.”
Perryman hit just one 3-pointer on the night but scored 10 points in the final eight minutes, and he dished out the assist on the basket that sealed the game, finding Jacob Gentry for a corner three with 23.6 seconds left.
A 6-foot-5 backup sophomore who hadn’t scored in the first three quarters, Gentry hit a pair of threes and played clutch defense in the fourth to help erase a 10-point deficit.
His first three, off the fourth of Perryman’s five assists, cut the lead to 42-39 with 3:49 left, and his second, which put the Ugly Eagles up four, came after he stopped Cougars senior Dylan Mansour on a potential go-ahead drive to the basket.
“We have 16 guys that can play on this team,” said Allocco. “I always tell him, ‘shoot the ball with love in your heart,’ and that’s what he did.”
After Campolindo (14-4, 3-1) missed a rushed three at the other end, Perryman iced the game with a one-handed dunk.
“We knew it was gonna be a dogfight,” Allocco said. “(Steven Dyer)’s one of the best coaches in the country, and they’re gonna be good every year as long as he’s there.”
Dyer’s Cougars had gone on a couple of impressive runs of their own before conceding the late 21-5 surge that decided the game. They led 26-13 after Gavin Rendle’s 3-pointer with 3:04 left in the second quarter, and after Clayton Valley bookended halftime with a 14-0 run to take a 27-26 lead on Justin Underwood’s 3-point play, the Cougars fired back with their own 10-0 run, including three-point plays by sophomore Peyton Beld and Mansour.
“I’m proud of our guys. I thought we executed our half-court defensive gameplan really well,” Dyer said.
The Cougars led 41-31 after Rendle hit his fourth 3-pointer with 6:26 to go, but went 0-for-6 from the field the rest of the way, including a missed point-blank layup. They also missed three free throws and turned it over four turnovers inside the final five minutes.
“Against a good team, you’ve gotta take care of the ball, and without Tyler Bergren (out with season-ending leg injuries), that’s been an issue for us at times,” Dyer said. “We did it pretty well for most of the game, but against a good team like Clayton Valley, you’ve gotta do it for the full game.”
Rendle led the Cougars with 14 points, Mansour scored 10 with nine rebounds and five assists and Tim Smith finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Perryman was Clayton Valley’s lone double-digit scorer. Sophomore Vince Ellis added seven points, hitting a pair of threes in the second half.
Campolindo hosts Mt. Diablo (2-14, 1-3) on Saturday afternoon. Clayton Valley faces Capital Christian (9-7) on Saturday night at Sheldon’s Block Party, then hosts Las Lomas (8-9, 1-3) on Monday night.