Boys basketball
EBAL semifinals
De La Salle trailed by a point in the final seconds of the third quarter when Alec Blair showed why he is no ordinary freshman.
With San Ramon Valley in position for the last shot, Blair made a block near the top of the arc, grabbed the ball, dribbled across midcourt while being closely defended and somehow buried a 3-pointer as time expired.
“It was a huge play, obviously,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said. “It swung the momentum. It was a ridiculous play. But he’s obviously capable of doing some pretty cool stuff.”
The Spartans, playing at home in Concord, took command in the fourth quarter on the way to a 61-50 victory Thursday night that sent them to the East Bay Athletic League final Saturday.
De La Salle will play host to fifth-seeded Granada, which had a big second half to upset top seed Dublin 61-52 in the other semifinal Thursday.
Ths second-seeded Spartans (20-4) have won 10 in a row since opening EBAL play with losses to California and Dougherty Valley, including a 52-47 win over Granada on Feb. 3.
De La Salle was missing about half of its roster against California.
“The EBAL is so good,” said Schroeder, who was the top assistant on Randy Bennett’s staff at St. Mary’s College before taking over at his high school alma mater this season. “SRV is really good and they’re young. And obviously Granada, they just lost so many close ones in the regular season and it’s kind of flipped for them in the tournament.
“We got off to a slow start. We were missing seven guys against Cal High and then Dougherty we were just coming back. Dougherty played great. At that moment, you don’t know what’s going to come. You don’t know you’re going to win 10 in a row.”
Blair and Javon Johnson each finished with 13 points for De La Salle on Thursday. Johnny Semany added 11 points.
Freshman Mason Thomas had 13 points for SRV, which fell to 14-8.
In Granada’s victory, the Matadors (15-6) got off to a slow start in the first quarter and trailed 28-19 at halftime. But the visitors outscored Dublin 16-5 in the third quarter and kept the momentum going down the stretch.
Andrew McKeever (19 points), Kevin Gad (14 points) and Nate Keaney (10 points) led Granada.
Jalen Stokes and Courtney Anderson Jr. each had 17 points for Dublin, which dropped to 16-5.
“We had to battle some nerves and some jitters and a little bit of that rivalry feel from that loss (to Dublin) that we received early on in the season,” Granada coach Quaran Johnson said. “Once we kind of settled down from that, I thought we started to play our style of basketball.”
Granada will now get a second shot against De La Salle.
“Nothing is easy,” Johnson said. “It’s never been easy. De La Salle is De La Salle. Hopefully, our boys come to battle.”
Girls basketball
Carondelet vs. San Ramon Valley, Round 2
San Ramon Valley and Carondelet, the top two teams in the Bay Area News Group rankings, played an epic game two weeks ago. Saturday evening they will meet again, this time for the EBAL championship.
Both teams advanced with semifinal victories Thursday.
Carondelet, playing at home in Concord, defeated Monte Vista 85-61. San Ramon Valley, playing at home in Danville, routed Amador Valley 81-45.
Saturday’s championship game will be played at San Ramon Valley, the same site as the earlier meeting in which the home team won 64-60.
SRV has won four in a row over Carondelet.
Before that, Carondelet was 21-0 against SRV dating back to 2009.
Thursday, five Carondelet players scored in double figures against Monte Vista. Stanford-bound Talana Lepolo led the way with 20 points. The second-ranked Cougars also got 15 points from Zoe Gregerios, 14 from Nya Epps, 13 from Megan Dickert and 10 from Ashley Lewis.
In top-ranked SRV’s victory Thursday, Boise State-bound Natalie Pasco (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Sierra Chambers (16 points) and Anneka Lupinek (10 points off the bench) led the Wolves.
SRV (24-2) is on a 22-game winning streak.
Carondelet is 23-2.
No. 6 Salesian 82, St. Patrick-St. Vincent 36
Salesian advanced to the Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division final with a victory at home over St. Patrick-St. Vincent.
The Pride will play for the title Saturday at top seed Pinole Valley, which beat St. Mary’s-Albany 57-53 in the other semifinal.
Nevaeh Asiasi (19 points), Kaylie Edge (14 points), Silivia Fonongaloa (10 points) and Makiah Asidanya (10 points) scored in double figures for Salesian.
The Pride led 30-12 after one quarter and 57-21 at halftime.
Source: www.mercurynews.com