De La Salle hangs on to beat San Ramon Valley: NorCal basketball roundup (1/30-31/2024)
Shooting. Rebounding. Ball-handling. Defense. All are details of basketball that coaches preach, prod and practice.
But there's an edge that is sharpened only from the wears of competition.
It's a big reason De La Salle is 22-3 overall and 8-0 in the rugged East Bay Athletic League following a doubly-tough 60-58 win at raucous San Ramon Valley Tuesday night.
The Spartans, ranked 16th in the state by SBLive Sports, jumped to a 23-11 lead after a nearly flawless first quarter, took San Ramon Valley's best shot to fall behind after three quarters, then rallied down the stretch behind 24 points from highly-touted junior Alec Blair.
San Ramon Valley (20-5, 6-2), which won its second straight Damien Classic Gold Division title in Dec., got 21 points, including a midcourt make at the end of the first half, from Luke Isaak, 15 by Mason Thomas and 11 from Seamus Deely.
"San Ramon Valley is a really good team and to be able to control the first half I was pleased with how we played," De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder texted. "Our third quarter was not our best but give a lot of credit to SRV.
"I was proud of our team for responding in a tough environment to play well in the fourth quarter. We have been in a lot of those situations this year and our team has gotten better in those moments. We had guys step up as they have done all season in the most critical moments of the game."
Arshawn Salkhi had 11 points and David Balogun and Ibrahim Monawar combined for 18 points.
De La Salle opened the season with a 62-51 win over 2022 CIF State Open Division champion Corona Centennial, and have recorded more tough wins over top caliber teams Central Catholic-Portland, Ore. (57-56), Los Alamitos (75-70), Campbell Hall (77-62), American Fork (69-68) and more recently, Dublin (46-43) and Granada (54-45).
San Ramon Valley has also been battle tested, including wins at Damien against Rancho Cucamonga (54-52), Rancho Christian (70-60), St. Pius X (67-62) and Dixie of Utah (69-68).
Last week after a win at Dublin (58-45), the Wolves dropped a 60-58 game at Granada (21-2).
San Ramon Valley coach Brian Botteen told Darren Sabedra of the San Jose Mercury News that most teams wilt once down double digits to De La Salle, but he liked the Wolves' resilience, even in defeat.
"It could have gone any way at the end," he said. "A couple of bounces here or there, a couple of stops."
Salesian 69, St. Patrick-St. Vincent 36
Alvin Loving had 12 points, Elias Obenyah 10 and Amani Johnson nine as the host Price improved to 24-1 and 9-0 in league play. St. Patrick, which got nine points from Tyriq McNeal, fell to 15-9 and 6-3. Salesian is the No. 3 team in California according to SBLive Sports.
Riordan 74, Serra 48
Zion Sensley threw down a reverse dunk off a pass from Andrew Hilman and the Crusaders (16-4, 10-0 West Catholic Athletic League), the state's No. 7 team, were off and dunking in a surprisingly resounding win over red hot Serra (14-6, 6-4).
According to Bay Area Insider Ethan Kassel, Sensley had 16 points and Hillman 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Dorde Curcic and Jordy McKenzie combined for 16 points and Nes Emeneke contributed six points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
Mikey Ballout had 17 points for the visiting Padres.
Mitty 66, St. Francis 27
Caeden Hutcherson had 15 points for Mitty (15-5, 9-1 WCAL) which limited the Lancers (3-17, 1-9) to their season-low point total of the season. The Monarchs host Sacred Heart Cathedral on Friday before its big showdown at Riordan on Tuesday.
St. Ignatius 75, SH Cathedral 55
Down 10 in the first quarter, the visiting Wildcats (15-5, 6-4 WCAL) outscored the Irish by 37 over the next 23 minutes to win going away behind a balanced attack led by 11 points apiece from Steele LaBagh and Marcus Bast. Vince Crisp added 10. Fed Pernell led all scorers with 22 for SHC (9-11, 2-8). It was the 10th straight win for St. Ignatius in the series.
Ygnacio Valley 70, Campolindo 59
Antonio Kellogg Jr. had 16 points including four key free throws down the stretch as the Wolves (19-6, 10-1) moved into the lead for the top spot in the Diablo Athletic League. Loyal Morris and Evan McKnight had 14 apiece for the home team, while Gavin Rendle led the Cougars with 18 points, while teammate Dylan Mansour added 15.
Sac-Joaquin Section
Capital Christian 71, Sacramento 48
Jaylen Valdez had 26 points, CJ Willenborg 13 and Myles Wiggins 12 as the Cougars improved to 18-7 overall and 8-1 in Capital Athletic League. Sacramento dropped to 19-6 and 7-2 in this showdown to determine the leader in the CAL. It was the second straight tough loss for Sacramento, which was stunned last week by Christian Brothers, 66-61, as Shawn Underwood and Stephan Hewitt had 17 points each.
Central Section
Clovis West 65, Clovis East 62
Chris Bedreau had 19 points lifting Clovis West to a hard-earned 65-62 TRAK win over Clovis East, which got 21 points from Lydell Farmer. Clovis West (21-5, 6-1) is No. 3 in the Central Section rankings according to Paul Meadors of SBLive Sports and Clovis East (15-10, 2-5) is No. 9. Clovis West hosts No. 7 Buchanan (19-5, 5-2) on Friday.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Mitty 79, St. Francis 14
McKenna Woliczko had 23 points in 14 minutes, Belle Bramer added 16, Emma Cook 12 and Elana Weisman 10 for the the Monarchs (20-0, 8-0 WCAL), who won by 65 against one of the top 20 teams in the Bay Area.
Check back for many more games on a busy Tuesday and Wednesday.
