Salesian wins 11th CIF North Coast Section boys basketball title with 52-43 Open victory over De La Salle
It took four minutes for either team to score a single point. The Salesian Pride and De La Salle Spartans have built their basketball programs around tenacious defense.
It's served each well as they went into Friday's North Coast Section Open Division championship game with a combined 24 NCS titles.
But this particular Pride team has loads of other winning traits as it showed for the 17th straight time this season and 29th occasion out of 30 overall with a tenacious 52-43 North Coast Section Open Division championship victory before a jammed crowd at Contra Costa College.
De'Undraw Perteete drilled a pair of three-pointers to start the fourth quarter en route to a team high 12 points as the Pride, who remarkably don't have a single player averaging in double-digit scoring, once again spread the wealth while winning their first Open crown.
Hawaii-bound point guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor scored all eight of his points in the second half.
Photo: Dennis Lee
Carlton Perrilliat, Hawaii-bound point guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor and Amani Johnson all had eight points for Salesian, which is now 10-1 against Top 25 state-ranked teams this season.
That's why many believe this could be the best team Salesian has ever had and why they are ranked third in the state by SBLive. They took a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter and remarkably never trailed despite the mammoth efforts of 6-foot-6 Alec Blair, who scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the second half.
He made almost all of his shots under heavy duress.
Blair had some good interior help from Braddock Kjellsvig (11 points, 11 rebounds), but no one else had more than seven points. The Pride also forced 17 turnovers which ultimately proved costly.
De La Salle, ranked 19th in the state, dropped to 25-5.
Both teams move on to next week's CIF Northern California Regional. Salesian will no doubt be seeded No. 1. De La Salle, after its 15th NCS title, dropped its second straight Open Division title game after losing to Dougherty Valley last season.
(Photos below by Dennis Lee)
