Dougherty Valley beats De La Salle, adds NCS Open title to magical ride
MORAGA — They have been the Bay Area’s best team all season, a collection of stars and role players who rise to the occasion when the moment is at its brightest.
It was tense and electric deep into the second half Friday night for the Dougherty Valley Wildcats as they aimed to add another championship to what has become a magical ride for the San Ramon school.
De La Salle pushed, as always.
But down the stretch, the top-seeded Wildcats did what they have done so many times this season.
They closed.
Dougherty Valley captured the North Coast Section Open Division championship, beating De La Salle 65-51 before a standing-room-only crowd at Saint Mary’s College.
When the game ended and the trophy had been presented to the newly crowned champions, coach Mike Hanson pointed his players toward the student section, which had done its part to lift the team to the program’s first section championship.
Soon, the celebration turned into a moshpit on the court.
“Unreal,” center Landon Edmond said. “We knew were going to close it out in the fourth quarter. Our coach kept telling us we’re closers and we did it.”
Dougherty Valley led 52-47 with three minutes left when it found the extra gear to finish off the Spartans.
Aadi Malali buried a corner 3-pointer to stretch the advantage to eight.
Then Blake Hudson, who had a momentum-igniting dunk in the third quarter, drove for two layups that widened the margin to 59-49.
When Hudson grabbed a rebound at the other end with less than a minute on the clock, the Dougherty Valley student section knew the game was over.
“Start the bus! Start the bus,” the students chanted.
The Wildcats made six consecutive free throws down the stretch — two by Ryan Beasley, two by Malali and two by Connor Sevilla — to beat De La Salle by 14 points for the second time this season.
The Spartans (21-8) had hoped to erase the sting of losing to Campolindo by a point in the Open final last season.
Instead, it was another painful result for the Concord school, even more so because its star player, sophomore Alec Blair, barely played in the second half.
He was whistled for his third foul with 6:11 left in the third quarter and his fourth less than a minute later.
He returned with 6:17 left and De La Salle trailing by five.
Less than three minutes after he was sent back into the game, Blair fouled out.
“It really hurt,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said. “We’ve got to be better as a group. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to play better in the second half. We let it get away from us again, just like we did a few weeks ago at their place.
“Credit them. They’re really, really good.”
Dougherty Valley (27-3) showed again how good, adding the section championship to the East Bay Athletic League title it captured two weeks ago and the league tournament crown that followed.
“It’s unbelievable,” Hansen said. “We opened the school in ’07 and it was like, ‘Are we ever going to get anywhere?’ You just keep believing and grinding.
“To win the Open at Dougherty Valley, first trip here, No. 1 seed, it was special.”
Beasley led Wildcats with 21 points. Sevilla finished with 13, Hudson had 12 and Malali contributed with 10.
De La Salle had three players score in double figures: Billy Haggerty (14), Evan Wells (12) and Blair (11).
Dougherty Valley kept the score tight in the first half even with Beasley picking up two early fouls.
The Wildcats held a 31-28 advantage at halftime.
“I just play aggressive, so I knew I would get fouls,” Beasley said. “I played smart for the rest of it. I ended up with two. So I didn’t foul no more.”
During the celebration, Beasley was hoisted into the air with a pair of scissors.
The USF-bound guard ended the night by cutting down the net.
“It means a lot,” he said, remembering a loss in the NCS Division I final last season. “To come back and win Open, it’s big-time for us. It’s big-time for our coaches as well. We’ve been through everything and we got the dub tonight.”