Woodside boys’ basketball nets highest point total in 15 years

“It’s a good way to start,” Woodside head coach Ramon Meacham said, after his team last took the floor Dec. 14. “I’ll take it. I’ll take any ‘W.’ ... It’s just a morale boost for us because we’re still a young team. So, I’ll take any win we can get right now.”

Not everyone was stoked about the new scoreboard, though. Senior forward Kevin Perez enjoyed a banner evening, recording a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, leading the Wildcats on a blistering 27-point barrage in the first quarter. So, while he was satisfied with the bright, new scoring column, he wasn’t too thrilled they changed the color of the scoreboard from black to orange.

“I actually like the other one just because it was all black,” Perez said. “Black is my favorite color. But this one’s a lot bigger, so it’s better in that regard.”

Woodside’s 84 points marks the most points the program has scored in a single game in 15 years, going back to Dec. 10, 2009, in an 86-10 win over El Primero-San Jose. The Wildcats are averaging just under 65 points per game this season.

“We are a good shooting team,” Meacham said. “We have a lot of players that can shoot the ball. It’s just going to be on the given day if they’re making shots or not. I think that’s the big difference between this year’s team and last year’s team. We have a few more players that can fill it up a little bit.”

Junior guard Josh Fitzsimmons added 11 points, while senior Burak Akkaya and junior Luke Grech added 10 apiece.

Woodside point guard Isaac Wagner was out of action, having yet to return from winter break. The Wildcats utilized Gonzalez and Perez at the point, but the pressure defense helped alleviate the half-court set with consistent takeaways, allowing Woodside to score in transition. Drew committed 15 turnovers throughout, 11 of them coming in the first half.

Gonzalez led the way with seven steals on the night.

“Without [Wagner] here, we definitely knew we all had to step up and take a roll,” Gonzalez said. “And we did it.”

Drew junior Kian Chan scored a team-high 18 points.

The Dragons (4-9) were severely shorthanded, with just seven active players in attendance. Head coach Andrew Heath’s squad started the year with 13 players, but the small San Francisco-school program has lost three players to season-ending injuries, including centerpiece junior Charlie Leu, a 6-5 rebounder who opened the year with 20 boards at Marin Academy, and had eight rebounds in the first quarter, Dec. 3, against Wallenberg before suffering a season-ending injury in the second.

Drew shot 35.2% from the field, getting to the rim with some consistency but having trouble finishing shots.

“I was telling them ... we scored 30 in the first half; 53 for a high school game isn’t too bad,” Heath said. “It was more our defensive end.”

The Wildcats — knocking down 4 of 4 from 3-point territory in the first half — opened on a 7-2 run, capped by a corner 3 from Akkaya. Then the transition game got cooking, with Perez scoring on a fast-break pull-up floater, followed by Gonzalez finishing on a 2-on-1 to make it 13-7.

Perez crushed a perimeter 3 near the end of the opening quarter. Akkaya did the same at the start of the second to push the lead to 30-20, sparking a 12-3 run, capped by a Perez steal off a clean pick for a coast-to-coast layup for a 42-23 lead.

Perez transferred to Woodside last season after two years at Summit Everest, a charter school in Redwood City that did not have a basketball team. He arrived at Woodside when Gonzalez was promoted to the varsity squad. The two certainly seem to have forged a strong chemistry.

“He just has a great attitude,” Gonzalez said. “He knows how to run the offense. I think what makes it so great is he’s very competitive. He has a good mindset. And when you have all of that, and you put it together, you make a great player.”

The Wildcats opened the second half on a 15-1 tear before cycling in their second- and third-string. Gonzalez had three transition buckets off steals in the third period, while Perez had two.

After incurring a technical foul in the fourth quarter for shoving an opposing player, Gonzalez fouled out less than a minute later. He finished with six assists in the game to go with five rebounds.

Woodside out-rebounded the undermanned Dragons 39-24 throughout.

Drew senior Ezra Kolsky added 10 points, while junior Nicholas Ordonez-Reyes totaled nine.

Next up, Woodside opens Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play with a tall test, traveling to Menlo-Atherton, Wednesday, Jan. 8, for a 6 p.m. tipoff.

The Wildcats played in the PAL Ocean last season, but were promoted after claiming the division championship, the program’s first PAL title since sharing the South Division crown in 2006, and its first outright title since winning the South Division in 2002.