Oakland Tech celebrates another section title at expense of rival Oakland
OAKLAND — It took two fourth-quarter plays to bring out the raucous “O-T” chants at Merritt College in a heated, tightly contested grudge match between Oakland Tech and Oakland High.
The first was a dagger three from Tech guard Brandon Woodards to give his team a five-point lead with under 1:30 left in the game. And the second was a rapturous dunk from his teammate Sadiq Alarbesh to seal the deal and put an exclamation point on Tech’s Oakland Section championship, taking down Oakland 49-47.
“We lost the first two,” Woodards reflected in the wake of his team’s big win. “We practiced hard, we bounced back, we knew we could beat them. We overcame adversity. Came out with the W.”
Woodards led Tech with 16 points, while Alarbesh finished with 13 points as the backcourt duo came alive in the second half.
After the game, Alarbesh expressed the emotions of bringing home a championship in his senior year.
“It feels great,” Alarbesh said as the Tech cheer squad next to him screamed joyously with the players holding the championship trophy. “Our whole year, our coach has been preaching, ‘How do you guys want your legacy to be as seniors?’ And it’s you always want to be a winner. So we went out on top, and everybody’s gonna know that for the rest of life.”
Like any Tech-O High game, it was a dogfight from start to finish. With Oakland down its best player, D’Ari Bruce, the Wildcats relied on their other big man, Romyn Waugh, to initiate the offense. Waugh finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds as the center punished Tech on the offensive boards throughout the game.
But what separated Tech from Oakland in a game that could have swung either way were the 50-50 balls. For Oakland coach Orlando Watkins, that was the big difference in the fourth quarter when Tech pulled away.
“We didn’t come up with the 50-50 balls, and they did. And normally, the team that comes up with the 50-50 ball wins the games,” Watkins said. “They shot better free throws in the fourth quarter than we did. They deserved to win the game.”
Those free throws ultimately made the difference. While Oakland was able to get itself to the line, it failed to convert, with miss after miss piling up in the tightly contested fourth quarter. And on the other side, Woodards went a perfect 9 of 9 from the line, which wound up being the difference in a game decided by two points.
“He’s kind of up and down sometimes, but when he’s locked in, he’s really good,” Tech coach Karega Hart said of Woodards’s clutch performance. “He’s a warrior. He works really hard. He works on the boards. He’s a good passer. But he locked in that fourth quarter. He didn’t want to go out without a win in the section championship.”
Both teams will receive bids to the NorCal regionals, with who they’ll play and what division they’ll be in to be decided by CIF on Sunday.
For Watkins and Oakland, they’ll recollect themselves and hopefully have Bruce healthy for when the stakes rise even higher. As for Hart and his squad, all they are focused on is themselves and what they can control.
It’s a big win for Tech, which has now captured the last five Oakland Section titles. After falling to Oakland twice in the regular season, talk of a shifting tide in the OAL grew louder. But on championship night, Tech showed which program still sets the standard.
Girls Oakland Section final
Oakland Tech blew the doors off of Oakland High 71-37 to secure the Oakland Section title. Led by Jhai Johnson, who finished with a game-high 20 points, and Terri’A Russell, who collected 16 points in only a single half of action, Tech blasted Oakland both on the fastbreak and in the halfcourt.
“Always good, always good to win anything,” coach Leroy Hurt said after claiming another championship. “We expected to win and we did. So you got a lot of that.”
Oakland Tech improved to 18-10 and will now turns its eye towards state competition. As for what Hurt expects to face moving forward, he anticipates being on the road.
“Low D-1,” Hurt repeated. “We’re gonna go on the road, we will not be at home. I wish we were but we will not be at home.”