Townes proves his worth in battle with one of nation’s top prep players

With 17.5 seconds remaining in Saturday’s CIF Northern California Open Division boys basketball final, Modesto Christian trailed Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) by seven points when Crusaders coach Richard Midgley called for a timeout.

That’s what you do, right? You call timeout even when the situation is bleak.

But after breaking the huddle, 6-foot-6 senior Anthony Townes turned to his teammates and demanded, “Keep playing hard!”

Keep playing hard,” he said a second time, to let them know he was serious.

Surely, Townes knew the situation. A comeback from a deficit that large in that amount of time is very rare. And, in the end, that margin proved insurmountable as the Dragons won 56-47 to advance to the state championship game for the second time in as many years.

But none of that was on Townes’ mind at the time.

“This may have been the last time some people would ever see us play together as a team,” said the senior co-captain. “And I didn’t want us to give a bad impression.”

It’s doubtful that anybody in Sleep Train Arena left with a bad impression of the Crusaders (30-4).

“He’s a phenomenal player,” said O’Dowd coach Lou Richie, whose team will play Mater Dei (Santa Ana) for the second straight season in the CIF final. “He always brings his A-game against Ivan (Rabb) and he’s going to have a wonderful career as an undersized big man at UOP.”

Townes gave up five inches to Rabb, ranked as one of the top players in America by just about every recruiting service known to man. He’s narrowed his college choices to the blue bloods of the sport – Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Arizona and Cal.

But if Rabb is one of the best players in the country, what does that say for Modesto Christian’s Townes?

It says for 32 minutes on Saturday night in Sacramento, he was also one of the best.

Townes led all scorers with 20 points, two more than Rabb, and pulled down five rebounds. At first glance, Rabb’s 18 rebounds would indicate the All-American got the better of the Modesto Christian star. But when you consider Rabb’s height advantage, and that Townes played most of the night in foul trouble, which limited how aggressive he could be, it’s amazing that Rabb didn’t do even more.

“He played great tonight,” said Rabb, who was surrounded by reporters and television cameras after the final buzzer. “He was exceptional off the pick and roll and got some easy points in the paint; he made some very tough shots, too.”

Townes put the Crusaders on his back in the first quarter, scoring eight of their first 10 points as they raced to an 18-13 lead after one. But even when O’Dowd took control and stretched the lead to double digits, Townes never wavered. He never let the thought that this might be his last game for the Blue and Red enter his mind.

“Not at all,” said Townes. “I always thought I’d be wearing this jersey again next Saturday. I thought we’d be having practice on Monday.”

As it stands now, Monday will be just another school day. But for a good chunk of Saturday night’s final, practice was still in play.

“I knew he wasn’t going down without a fight,” said Rabb.

You can be sure that Rabb figured that out well before there were 17.5 seconds left in the game.

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Townes proves his worth in battle with one of nation’s top prep players."