Red-hot Menlo-Atherton tops crosstown Menlo

Four M-A players scored in double figures, including senior Aiden Atkins, with 14 points and eight rebounds. Senior guards Jerry Williams and Jacob Sutton shared the game-high of 14 points, while senior forward Luca Auer added 11.

“When we outrebound teams and get four guys in double figures, we’re going to be really tough to beat,” M-A head coach Craig Carson said.

Carson now improves to 1-1 against Menlo in head-to-head play since taking over the program last season. Menlo head coach Ben Batory falls to 2-3 against M-A in the annual crosstown showdown, though, admittedly, the fanfare for the unofficial rivalry wasn’t what it usually is, said the fifth-year coach.

“This is a huge annual event, although tonight you have to blame the 49ers for moving their game time,” Batory said. “Because typically this thing is kind of mobbed.

“The kids look forward to it, I look forward to it,” he said. “I’m kind of proud of the fact that coming into tonight we, as kind of a small school, were 2-2 against M-A in my four years. ... This game kind of felt like that ... like those games the last couple years.”

M-A (7-3) jumped out to an early 11-4 lead, breaking a 4-all tie when Auer buried a deep 3-pointer from the wing, and Sutton followed with a quick corner splash.

“We play fast, but we don’t have to,” Carson said. “We’re kind of versatile. We can move the ball on offense, but we can get up and down a little bit.”

The Bears played fast throughout the first half, and dominantly so, outscoring Menlo 17-0 on transition points throughout.

“We kind of pride ourselves, if we’re the smaller team, we’ve got to get out and run, kick ahead to the corners, take those early shot-clock 3s,” Batory said. “And we just didn’t get that done tonight, for one reason or another.”

Menlo (8-5) trailed by 10 in the closing minute of the first quarter after a cutting layup by Williams pushed M-A’s lead to 20-10. But the Knights made a 10-2 run into the second quarter, with back-to-back 3s by Maverick Desuasido and Evan Arcilla cutting the deficit to 22-20.

It was as close as the Knights would get, though, after an Atkins putback sparked an 11-2 M-A run.

The 6-5 Atkins played with fire, and finished with a flourish, tallying two slam dunks in the fourth quarter. His first, to make it 58-42, drew a technical foul for taunting. Later in the quarter, Atkins delivered a more mannerly dunk off an assist pass from Williams to make it 64-49.

“Aiden is a great kid,” Carson said. “He’s our best defender. He’s really athletic, obviously. He missed a couple easy ones, he got composed. Those are his first two dunks of the year.”

Arcilla shared the game-high of 14 points, and hit a game-high four 3-pointers.

Menlo’s defense insisted on pushing the pace for most of the night, but stopped pressing as M-A milked the clock in the late going.

The Knights were coming off tournament play at the end of 2025, as well, going 2-2 at the St. Francis La Canada Tournament in Pasadena. Menlo wrapped up play in the tourney Dec. 30 with a 45-44 win over Milken-Los Angeles, and flew back to the Bay Area on New Year’s Eve.

“We kind of wanted to pick and choose our shots, and press selectively,” Batory said. “And, out of the press, they ended up getting a couple easy buckets. And, ultimately, that’s why I decided to pull the press off at the end. We just got fatigued. It’s tough to kind of press all game long. We have had success doing that, especially down in L.A. But we kind of ran out of gas, so I pulled it off.”

M-A added depth to its roster Saturday in activating junior Leighton Carpenter, a transfer from Bellarmine-San Jose. Carpenter came off the bench to finish with four points, three rebounds and two assists.

Next up, the Bears open Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play Tuesday night, hosting Jefferson at 6 p.m. Since opening the season with back-to-back loses, M-A has won seven of its last eight.

“We played a really tough preseason,” Carson said. “Every game was competitive. Our three losses, we had leads or were tied late. So, we’re competitive.”