Boys Basketball: Spartans Hang On Against SRV; Advance to NCS Finals

No. 2 De La Salle 50, No. 3 San Ramon Valley 42

The Star: Amadi Udenyi scored 16 points to lead the Spartans while SRV's Mark Tollefsen scored 17.

The Turning Point: With the Wolves closing in on DLS late in the game, SRV guard Jordan Giusti hit what appeared to be an and-one.  However, Giusti was called for a charge and the Wolves never recovered.

Who's Next? De La Salle will play top-seeded Castro Valley on Friday at 8:30 p.m., at Saint Maray's College in the North Coast Section Division I championship game. 

The Bottom Line: After leading by as many as 18 in the second half, De La Salle saw its lead shrink to four with 2:35 left in the game. Thanks to some timely offensive rebounds, that and clutch free throw shooting in the final minute, the Spartans hung on to beat the Wolves for the fifth time in seven meetings over the past two seasons. It is the second year in a row De La Salle beat SRV in the NCS semifinals at Saint Mary's.

——————————

Moments after the De La Salle High basketball team wrapped up its 50-42 win against San Ramon Valley in the North Coast Section Division I semifinals, coach Frank Allocco had nothing but praise for the way his team executed early.

The Spartans roared to a 33-17 halftime lead before holding off an inspired second-half charge by the Wolves. De La Salle will play top-seeded Castro Valley on Friday at 8:30 p.m., in the NCS championship.

"I think the first half was the best half of basketball we played all year," Allocco said. "We need to grow from it — and play three good quarters next game."

Just about everything that could have gone the Spartans' way in the first half did. They made 10 of their first 12 shots and turned the ball over just once in the half. That early efficiency provided just enough cushion for when the tide turned after halftime. 

Travis Pacos, who scored De La Salle's first seven points and finished with 11, opened the second half with a bucket to put the Spartans up by more than double the Wolves' point total at 35-17.

At that point, some fans at Saint Mary's McKeon Pavilion headed for the exits.

They missed out.

San Ramon breathed life back into the game by answering with an 8-0 run, sparked by consecutive 3-pointers from USF-bound Mark Tollefsen.

The Wolves continued to chip away at the De La Salle lead and cut the deficit to 44-40 on a dunk by Austin Holliday with two minutes, 35 seconds left in the game. 

"We were holding on for dear life," Allocco said. 

But that's as close as the Wolves would get.

San Ramon had only committed two team fouls late in the game and by the time it was able to send De La Salle's Duke Da Re to the free throw line to shoot one-and-one, there was less than a minute to play. Da Re sank both free throws before SRV's Jordan Giusti (4 points) cut the deficit back to four with two free throws of his own.

Da Re (7 points) calmly sank two more from the line with 17.6 seconds left to put the Spartans up 48-42 — essentially punching the Spartans' ticket for the NCS finals.

Amadi Udenyi, who led the Spartans with 16 points, tacked on two more free throws with 5.7 seconds left capping what was one of the senior's best games of the year.

The Spartans will be making their 10th appearance in the NCS finals in the last 13 years. During that span, the Spartans have gone 8-1 in title games. 

This one could be the most challenging of them all.

"Castro Valley is a phenomenal team," Allocco said. "They are one of the best teams in the Bay Area in years."

The top-seeded Trojans boast a record of 27-1 and feature Marquette-bound Juan Anderson and talented guard Roderick Bobbitt. 

Tollefsen gave credit to De La Salle's defensive intensity and complimented the Spartans on their game plan.

"They did a good job taking away our high screens in the first half and they were making every shot they took," he said. "We had to switch to more of a dribble-drive offense and finally started to make things happen."

Unlike last year — and in Divisions II through V this year — when all four NCS Division I semifinalists were granted berths into the NorCal playoffs, Wednesday's loss meant the end of the season for San Ramon. The California Interscholastic Federation requires a division to have 25 teams for it to grant four berths into the NorCal playoffs — there were only 23 D-I teams in NCS this year. 

With 2,032 students enrolled, San Ramon Valley was the smallest D-I team in the section and would have been considered a D-II school if its enrollment dropped below 2,000.

"Winning is not everything," San Ramon coach John Raynor said. "These kids are our champions for the way the represented themselves and the school. This is a high-character group that imprinted its passion for the game of basketball on (the coaching staff's) souls."

Raynor, who has been coaching basketball for 35 years, said its as high-character a group he's ever coached and he was especially proud of the way the Wolves were able to come back.

"I don't know of many teams that could comeback against a team as deliberate and athletic as De La Salle," he said. "(In the first half) they took us out of our offense and once we adjusted the shots finally started to fall. That's a credit to DLS."

San Ramon finished the year 26-3, with two of the three losses coming to De La Salle. Over the past two years the Wolves have gone 54-7 with five of the losses to the Spartans.

No. 2 De La Salle 50, No. 3 San Ramon Valley 42