NCAA Basketball: St. John’s, Saint Mary’s wins in 2019 Al Attles Classic

Four quality NCAA Basketball programs out west faced off in the inaugural All Attles Classic. What were the results from the doubleheader?

The 2019 Al Attles Classic was the first NCAA Basketball event at the new Chase Center in San Francisco, the home of the Golden State Warriors. The field included Arizona, Saint John’s, Saint Mary’s, Nevada, Stanford, San Diego, California, and Boston College.

On this particular Saturday night in the Bay Area, all eyes were on the San Francisco 49ers as they defeated the Los Angeles Rams in nearby Santa Clara on a game-winning field goal, 34-31. Over in San Francisco, a new and well put-together college basketball spectacle was taking place at the home of the 5-time NBA World Champions at the brand new Chase Center. Al Attles, who the event is named after, was a key member of the 1975 Golden State Warriors team that won the NBA Championship in a four-game sweep over the Washington Bullets.

The first session of the classic included a 62-59 win for the red-hot Stanford Cardinal (11-1) over the San Diego Toreros (6-8) and a 64-60 loss for the California Golden Bears (6-6) to the Boston College Eagles (8-5). Two down to the wire matchups that were highly entertaining. Oscar De Sliva (19 points, 11 rebounds, 5 steals) put on a show in the Cardinal victory and Jairus Hamilton (18 points and 8 rebounds) led the way for the Eagles.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend Session 1 but the real fun started at Session 2 in the night-slate (Arizona vs Saint John’s and Saint Mary’s vs Nevada). #16 Arizona was looking to get back in the win column after falling to the Gonzaga Bulldogs at home last Saturday and Saint Mary’s was trying to reach a three-game winning streak after beating up a pair of PAC-12 schools in California and Arizona State.