OAKLAND – Ardarius Grayson didn’t have a great first half.
The usually heady Oakland Tech star totaled four turnovers and struggled to connect from the outside as league rival Fremont-Oakland kept the 6-foot point guard at bay early.
But when it mattered most, Grayson was as clutch as they come.
Grayson scored 23 points – 12 of which came in the fourth quarter – to lead Tech to a gritty 68-54 road win over Fremont. The Bulldogs outscored Fremont 16-5 in the final period, shutting down the Tigers’ above-the-rim offense.
“It was an ugly game, but Ardarius is a gamer,” Tech coach Karega Hart said. “He knows how to play with pace and pick his spots.
“This game of basketball is beautiful because any team can win on any night. The game was close, and we were in a dog fight. So I’m happy to come out on top. I’m happy we played a better fourth quarter.”
It was a back-and-forth match for a majority Wednesday’s game with Tech not having full control of the game until late. Emotions were high in this rivalry game, despite Tech having the edge over Fremont for the better part of the last decade.
“They don’t like us and we don’t like them. It’s a rivalry,” Grayson said. “Every time we play, we know it’s going to be a tough game, so we just had to play through it.”
Saddiq Alarbesh was second in scoring for Tech with 13 points. Xan Meyer-Plettner had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds to go along with two blocks.
Fremont point guard Roy Bishop Jr. was the best player on the floor for Fremont as the Berkeley transfer had a team-high 16 points, dished out two assists and had three steals. Senior Deyonte Spears scored 12 points.
“We felt like we played well, but we just made some minor turnovers at key times that kind of just took us out of the game,” Fremont coach Scot Alexander said. “The intensity level was there, we just made little mistakes. We were a little bit behind them, but you could slowly see us getting there.”
The Bulldogs took a one-point lead into the second quarter, but Fremont turned up the heat.
While Tech controlled the pace of the game for a majority of the first half, two alley-oop slams from Fremont senior Jomari Bean got the crowd rocking. Fremont took the lead three times in the second period and forced Tech into 12 first half turnovers with a suffocating full-court press.
The Bulldogs scored five unanswered points to end the half and held onto a 32-29 lead going into halftime.
Tech started to hit shots coming out of halftime and took a 42-33 lead early in the third quarter after a 3-pointer from Alarbesh. The game got a bit heated after officials ejected a Fremont player for a non-basketball play that resulted in a huge momentum swing for Tech.
But Fremont was not going away.
The Tigers closed the half on a 10-4 run, capped off by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Dominic Antoine Jr. to come within three points of Tech’s lead going into the final quarter.
With the game in the balance, the Bulldogs turned to their star point guard to get them to the finish line.
Tech opened the fourth on a 6-0 run – with all three baskets scored from Grayson – which forced Alexander to call timeout with his team down 58-49.
Fremont had no answer for Grayson in the final period as he scored Tech’s first 10 points. The dagger came when Grayson found Alarbesh for a transition dunk that put Tech up 10 with just under two minutes to go in the game.
“I was slow the first three quarters,” Grayson said. “I told my coach I was going to get more aggressive. Early on, I shot a lot of jump shots and so I tried to take it to the basket, which got my teammates open as well.”
Wednesday’s win gave Tech its 18th straight win over Fremont – a streak that dates back to 2017. While Fremont came up short, the Tigers are in the midst of one of their better seasons in eight years, which has given Alexander confidence that they could compete come playoff time.
“We’ve just been trying to work on the small things,” Alexander said. “This is a new team with six new kids trying to pay attention to detail. I figured the longer the season goes, if we could just get into the final four of the section playoffs, we’d be a tough out … It’s going to come through for us in the end.”
