CONCORD – When the final buzzer sounded on De La Salle’s 55-49 victory over Salesian on Wednesday night, the Spartan players looked more relieved than overjoyed after the North Coast Section Open Division semifinal win became official.
The second-seeded De La Salle nearly lost a double-digit lead with a minute left in the game, but made a few late baskets to put away a relentless Salesian team.
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” De La Salle guard Leo Ricketts said.
De La Salle is now on its way to a second consecutive Open final played at St. Mary’s college, this time against an East Bay Athletic League rival in top-seeded Dougherty Valley.
An Aidan Mahaney-led Campolindo team squeaked past the Spartans 51-50 in last season’s final, and De La Salle is eager to get a second chance at a section title.
“I’m proud of our program to be back in this game,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said via text. “(It is a) testament to our players and how hard they’ve worked.”
De La Salle led 49-37 with 47 seconds remaining, having smothered Salesian’s offense for almost the entire game. But as the temperature outside the gym became frigid, the Salesian shooters began to heat up.
Alvin Loving made a three-pointer, and after De La Salle’s Billy Haggerty nailed two free throws, Loving raced downcourt and hit his second three in the span of 10 seconds to cut the lead to 51-43.
A Salesian defender then stole the inbounds pass at halfcourt. Amani Johnson took advantage of the turnover and made a three-pointer with 26 seconds left to cut the lead to five points.
After De La Salle missed the front end of a one-and-one, Johnson splashed Salesian’s fourth three-pointer in 30 seconds to cut the lead to 51-49. Salesian was almost all the way back.
“We never seem to make it easy, for whatever reason,” Schroeder said while shaking his head.
But with 10 seconds remaining, Evan Wells broke free for a De La Salle layup, and then the Spartans stole the inbounds pass. Arshawn Salkhi finished the game with another basket right before time ran out.
De La Salle (21-7) had survived another tight and low-scoring matchup between the traditional powers. In the previous four games, neither team had won by more than seven points, and no school has broken the 60-point mark in any of those showdowns.
Even though Salesian (22-8) is out of the section’s Open playoff, its season is far from over. Salesian is guaranteed a spot in the NorCal playoffs, and its consolation matchup against Granada on Saturday could determine which bracket the team is placed in.
“It goes on your schedule, and it goes on your record, so it can help or hurt with seeding,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said about the upcoming game. “We’ve got to take it seriously.”
De La Salle’s Ricketts was the spark that turned a four-point Spartan lead in the third quarter into a 17-point advantage midway through the fourth.
The energetic point guard with a knack for knocking down shots scored all seven of his points in a four-minute stretch between the third and fourth quarters, igniting what had been a stagnant offense with his playmaking.
“He’s a real nice player, man,” Schroeder said about Ricketts. “He’s been a sparkplug for us all year off the bench.”
The junior will now be asked to help defend Dougherty Valley’s prolific guard tandem of Ryan Beasley and Connor Sevilla, which advanced past Granada in its semifinal. Dougherty Valley beat De La Salle 69-55 in the regular season.
“They’re both really quick, and are really good at making difficult shots,” Ricketts said. “I’m excited for the challenge.”
De La Salle, coming off 13 days of rest, and Salesian, having enjoyed six days off, showed no signs of rust in the first quarter. Salesian led 14-13 in a back-and-forth opening eight minutes.
By comparison, the second quarter was a slog. De La Salle sophomore Alec Blair scored all six of his team’s points while the Richmond school could only muster three.
De La Salle, with timely baskets by Ricketts, Haggerty and others, ended the third quarter with a 36-26 lead. The Spartans led 46-29 midway through the fourth quarter, but an 8-0 Salesian run cut the lead to 46-37.
After Salkhi made a layup and another teammate hit a free throw, to go up 49-37, Salesian went on its rally.
Blair ended with a team-high 14 points, Haggerty and Salkhi each had 12, and Haggerty scored 10. Salesian’s Loving scored a game-high 18 but no other teammate scored more than six points.
“We ran out of time, and we ran out of timeouts, but we battled till the end,” Mellis said.
Source: www.mercurynews.com