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Put it this way, Bishop O’Dowd vs. San Leandro doesn’t lack in drama.

As Friday night’s JV basketball game prolonged between the schools separated by 3.1 miles, the gymnasium kept filling up to capacity. This required the stage to open for more fans to watch the action between these rivals.

In the end, O’Dowd snapped a four-game skid — the result of a rugged non-league schedule — with a 72-54 victory on the road that featured tense moments along with wild swings.

“The JV game at halftime, we were like, ‘Wow, this is filling up,’ ” BOD coach Lou Richie said. “Every stoppage of play they’d let 10 to 15 people come in. This was the most crowded I’d seen in the San Leandro gym. Maybe there was just blood in the water, they were expecting to beat us and blow us out. But it was a good atmosphere and a lot of people got a chance to watch a competitive game.”

In its West Alameda County Foothill Division opener, O’Dowd (6-7, 1-0) faced adversity barely two minutes into the game.

Cal commit Monty Bowser, a 6-foot-5 forward, was ejected during an inbounds play on the opposite end of the court.

“My understanding is they threw him out the game for a flagrant elbow,” said Richie, who plans to appeal the automatic suspension for next Wednesday’s game at Piedmont.

San Leandro (11-4, 0-1) couldn’t capitalize on its fortune, as the Pirates trailed 19-11 at the end of the first quarter and found themselves behind by as much as 39-21 in the second quarter.

Must of the punishment was self-inflicted, with 13 turnovers before intermission.

“All week we watched a lot film and just talked about putting on-ball pressure and really helping off the pick-and-roll and trying to create opportunities for us to take chargers and make them make difficult shots,” Richie said.

San Leandro managed to cut the deficit to 46-39 within the final minute of the third quarter, as forward Siri Sawyers accounted for 18 points and six dunks, including one-handed putback, while point guard Hikifo’ou Maile added 15 points.

But the Pirates kept shooting themselves in the foot by going 7 of 21 from the charity stripe, allowing BOD to pull away in the fourth quarter.

And O’Dowd did it without Bowser.

“We’ve had other situations over the first 12 games where we’ve had somebody go down and we’ve stayed true to the saying: Next man up,” Richie said. “I don’t think anybody was shook up, I don’t think anybody was rattled. We believe in each other and there’s a lot of good players on the basketball team.

“We just tried to rally for Monty. At halftime, he had some words for us. And in the second half he was right there on the bench supporting his teammates.”

Point guard Ryzon Norris delivered 15 points, while 6-4 junior Marsalis Roberson finished with a game-high 20 points.

The bench also played a big role with 19 points.

“We have 16 people on the varsity, and we have seven seniors and seven juniors,” Richie said. “So we have a lot of belief that there’s more than just Monte Bowser, that there’s some players out there that when called can make the plays and come in and play defense. And it’s not necessarily about just the points. In fact, that’s what I was trying to encourage the kids, it’s, ‘Don’t be that guy that feels he needs to make a play in the first minute, just come in and don’t make mistakes.’ ”

WCAL

Try making sense to the start of the West Catholic Athletic League boys basketball season.

Act 1: Mitty rolls past St. Francis on the road.

Act 2: St. Francis stuns Bellarmine in San Jose.

Act 3: Bellarmine dominates in the second half, wins at Mitty.

Yup, three games in, the league makes absolutely no sense.

Friday, top-ranked Mitty had a seven-point lead in the third quarter against second-ranked Bellarmine before the Bells caught fire behind senior point guard Quinn Denker.

Spurred by a massive run, Bellarmine went on to a 68-56 victory in front of a packed house to run its record to 12-1 overall and 2-1 in the WCAL.

Mitty fell to 11-2, 2-1.

The Bells went on a 20-4 surge to take a 41-32 lead into the fourth quarter and did not slow down as they broke Mitty’s press for easy layups — many by Kyle Lewis — over and over down the stretch.

Denker scored 13 of his 17 points after halftime. Lewis finished with 14 points (12 after the break) and eight rebounds.

Michael Mitchell had 23 points and nine rebounds for Mitty.

Next up for Bellarmine is a Tuesday home game against the only team yet to lose in WCAL play, Serra, a 69-62 winner over Sacred Heart Cathedral on Friday.

Mitty visits SHC on Tuesday.

Elsewhere

Archbishop Riordan built a 14-point halftime lead on the road against St. Francis and did not look back, rolling to a 66-40 win over St. Ignatius before a capacity crowd in San Francisco. Jelani Clark had 20 points and five assists and Robert Vaihola added 12 points and nine rebounds to lead Riordan, which improved to 11-2, 2-1. S.I. fell to 5-8, 0-3.