Modesto Christian to clash with Bishop O’Dowd for sixth time in four seasons

Now in his fourth season as the coach of his alma mater, Lou Richie finds himself in an unusual spot.

The Bishop O’Dowd boys basketball coach, who guided the Dragons to a state championship last season, is winless two games into the start of a new season.

Modesto Christian will try to make it three consecutive losses when the teams meet at 6 p.m. Saturday in a rematch of last year’s CIF Open Division Northern California championship game.

The matchup marks the sixth time the teams have squared off in the last four seasons. O’Dowd lost its season opener 75-48 to De La Salle (Concord), ranked No. 2 in NorCal behind Modesto Christian to start the year. The Dragons then fell to Dublin 62-48. Modesto Christian lost its season opener 53-51 to Folsom, Cal-Hi Sports’ third-ranked team in Northern California.

The Crusaders played Buchanan (Clovis) Thursday night in a game that started after The Bee’s press time.

Richie and Crusaders coach Richard Midgley, a Cal graduate, are close friends, and they first scheduled a regular-season meeting in February 2013 as a way for each to break out of their league routines. O’Dowd won that game, but the Crusaders returned the favor a month later when they knocked the Dragons out of the NorCal tournament in the first round. The following year, O’Dowd won both the regular-season meetings and the matchup in the NorCal semifinals, and last season the perennial Bay Area powerhouse ended MC’s season at Sleep Train Arena with the Crusaders one win from a state championship date with SoCal power Mater Dei (Santa Ana).

O’Dowd, behind senior Ivan Raab (now playing at Cal), would go on to deny Mater Dei a fifth consecutive state crown and avenge a loss to the Monarchs in the state final the year before.

Modesto Christian lost seniors Anthony Townes (Pacific) and Jeff Wu (Sacramento State) to graduation, but seniors Robinson Idehen (6-foot-10, 205 pounds) and Christian Ellis (6-3, 190) return from a Sac-Joaquin Section Division I champion team that posted a 30-4 record.

Without Raab, the Dragons are rebuilding around youth, with 6-9 freshman Raymond Hawkins as the centerpiece.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Modesto Christian to clash with Bishop O’Dowd for sixth time in four seasons."