CIF STATE BASKETBALL FINALS : Emery’s Big Package Awaits Brethren Christian in Final : Basketball: Darnell Robinson, 6-11, is expected to power his team’s offense in the Division V State championship game.

Ask Emeryville Emery Coach Abe Abrami what makes his basketball team click and he’ll rave about its aggressive man-to-man defense.

But as Brethren Christian prepares to take on Emery (29-5) in Saturday’s Division V State championship game, the Warriors have a bigger problem than Emery’s defense to think about.

That problem is 6-foot-11 Emery center Darnell Robinson.

Statistically, Robinson is the best high school scorer in state history. He laid claim to that honor recently when he passed Tracy Murray, Portland Trail Blazer rookie, as the state’s all-time leading scorer. After scoring 17 points in Emery’s 60-35 victory over Ross Branson in the Northern California championship game last Saturday, Robinson, a senior, had 3,330 points.

“The cog and the wheel is Darnell,” said Abrami, whose team faces Brethren Christian at 11:15 a.m. Saturday in the Oakland Coliseum Arena. “But it’s not a one-man team. The rest of the team has come along defensively.”

Abrami is correct, Emery does play good defense. It only gives up a little more than 50 points per game. But if Robinson isn’t a one-man team, he certainly has the kind of statistics college recruiters drool over.

Consider these numbers: 29.6 points per game on 71% shooting from the field and 81% from the free-throw line; 19.4 rebounds per game, 9.4 blocks and five assists per game.

College recruiters have noticed. Abrami said more than 100 schools actively recruited Robinson, including two-time defending national champion Duke. But the 260-pound Robinson ended the recruiting game last fall when he signed a letter of intent with Arkansas.

“He can do it all,” Abrami said. “He’s strong inside and he can hit from the outside. He has a nice 18-foot jumper, but we don’t want him out there. And we don’t go to him every time.

“Before, in other years, we relied on him too much. It’s become a whole team this year.”

Translated, Emery has another go-to guy. If a defense concentrates too much on stopping Robinson, Emery will go to 6-8 forward Endiecko Battles. He scored 16 points in the victory over Branson.

Setting up the two big men has been guard James Carter, who is averaging nine assists.

So how does a school with 106 students wind up with two big men?

“It doesn’t happen often,” said Abrami, who is in his 39th season at Emery. “Every 39 years we get some big guys.”

Actually, Emery usually enjoys considerable success. Abrami is the state’s second winningest coach with an 802-196 record. A State title, though, has eluded Abrami. “To me the season is a success now,” he said. “If we can win it, it’s just icing on the cake. It would be awful to go this far and not win it all.”

The Warriors are the only thing that stand between Emery and that State title. Abrami is worried, mostly because he doesn’t know anything about Brethren Christian.

“Do they have a big man?” Abrami asked. “We’d like to find out. Everybody I ask is closed mouth. All they want is to know about Darnell.”

Five teams have figured out how to stop Robinson and Emery. Three are Division 1-A schools from the state, one loss came to a team from Alabama and another was to a team from New York.

“If we play good defense, we should be OK,” Abrami said.