DANVILLE — San Ramon Valley’s offense is a symphony of crisp passes and free-flowing ball motion, which regularly results in open pictures everywhere in the flooring.
However on Thursday night time, the high-powered offense was no match for the brute drive and energy of De La Salle’s protection.
De La Salle placed on a clinic on the defensive finish because the Spartans shut down SRV’s offense en path to a gritty 60-51 victory on the highway within the East Bay Athletic League semifinals. The Harmony faculty will play Dougherty Valley for the EBAL title on Saturday.
“We were just ready defensively,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder mentioned. “They’re such a good offensive team with so many weapons and we guarded them well. … The start for our team is on defense. If we can guard and we can get buckets in transition, it helps our offense.”
Oklahoma commit Alec Blair led De La Salle with 26 factors, 12 rebounds and 5 assists. Senior middle David Balogun had 9 factors and 11 rebounds and senior guard Bryce Patton added 11 factors with three made 3-pointers.
“We didn’t do too much. We just played our game,” Blair mentioned. “We’re the best team in NorCal. I think that win clinches us a high seed in the North Coast Section Open Division, which is big time.”
SRV, which got here into Thursday’s sport as the highest total seed within the EBAL playoffs, struggled to seek out any movement on offense. Coach Brian Botteen didn’t mince phrases when requested what went mistaken on Thursday.
“I thought we played our worst game of the year,” Botteen mentioned. “I thought we relied on self and not the team, and they exposed us for that. There’s a difference between other teams and De La Salle. Credit to them. They punched us in the mouth.”
De La Salle didn’t let the house group breathe from the opening tip.
The Spartans jumped out to a 10-0 lead, capped off by a robust one-handed slam from Balogun. A layup from Braddock Kjellesvig pushed the De La Salle result in 16-2 simply minutes into the primary quarter.
Although back-to-back 3s from SRV level guard Mason Thomas and a transition layup from Elliot Conley minimize the result in 9 towards the tip of the primary quarter, the shock of De La Salle’s begin silenced the normally energetic SRV crowd.
SRV began to seek out its rhythm to begin the second quarter because the Wolves minimize the De La Salle result in three on a layup from Luke Isaak. However the Spartans didn’t let their foot off the fuel as they closed the second quarter in a 9-2 run to take a 32-22 lead at halftime.
In traditional De La Salle style, the Spartans slowed the sport down within the second half and took management of the tempo. De La Salle discovered Blair on the elbow and let the 6-foot-7 ahead go to work as a scorer and a creator. Blair completed with seven third-quarter factors and a handful of assists.
On the opposite finish of the ground, De La Salle’s protection, anchored by Balogun, compelled the Wolves into contested pictures on the rim and on the perimeter. Balogun credited stopping SRV from driving the lane being the important thing to the win.
“We’re really good on defense and that’s one thing we take a lot of pride in,” Balogun mentioned. “We always focus on playing team defense and not individual defense.”
Although SRV made it fascinating down the stretch, it was a lot of the identical from De La Salle. Blair threw down a two-handed slam off a SRV turnover to offer De La Salle a 51-35 lead – its largest of the night time.
From that time, SRV went on a 9-0 run to chop the result in seven with simply over three minutes to go, but it surely was too late.
A Patton 3, a Balogun submit hook and a layup from Ibrahim Monawar prolonged De La Salle’s result in 14 with simply over a minute left because the Spartans cruised to the win.
De La Salle, which got here into Thursday’s sport because the No. 4 seed, defeated Dublin 54-41 on Wednesday. Schroeder mentioned taking part in an additional sport helped the Spartans prepare for a tricky highway take a look at at SRV.
“I think when we play these tournaments and you play the night before, in a way it helps,” Schroeder mentioned. “We had a little momentum coming into last night and they hadn’t played since last Friday, so I think maybe that has something to do with it.”
SRV coach Brian Botteen didn’t assume rust performed a giant issue within the loss.
“I thought our practices have been good. I thought our preparation was good,” Botteen mentioned. “This caught everybody off guard. We weren’t overconfident, but we felt we were ready.”
Thursday’s win additionally had greater postseason ramifications as each applications are anticipated to be within the NCS Open Division. As of Thursday night time, MaxPreps has De La Salle as the highest group within the North Coast Part and SRV proper behind the Spartans.
“The MaxPreps computer rankings has us No. 1 by a lot,” Schroeder mentioned. “I think that means a lot in the committees’ eyes, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
De La Salle will get one other crack at Dougherty Valley on Friday, a group that beat the Spartans handedly earlier this season. Dougherty Valley beat California 70-54 on Friday to advance to the EBAL title sport.
