This time, Dougherty Valley beats Clayton Valley, advances to NorCal semis

CONCORD – The “biggest win in school history” Thursday night carried Dougherty Valley into the semifinal round of the CIF Northern California Division I boys basketball championships.

Avenging a five-point loss to Clayton Valley Charter eight nights earlier in a North Coast Section Open Division semifinal, the Wildcats got the better of the Ugly Eagles the second time around, 59-55.

Dougherty Valley (23-10) advanced to a 7 p.m. Saturday contest at Folsom, which edged Franklin of Elk Grove 63-61 on Thursday. Saturday’s winner will go on to Tuesday’s NorCal championship game.

“That’s a big-time win,” Wildcats coach Mike Hansen said. “We hadn’t won a NorCal game. Winning the opening game the other night and doubling up tonight against a very talented group like (Clayton Valley), it’s huge. I would say it’s probably our biggest win in school history, for sure.”

Dougherty Valley, which opened in 2007, set a single-game school record for 3-point field goals with 15 in Tuesday’s 84-58 first-round victory over Destiny Christian Academy of Sacramento. The Wildcats picked up right where they left off, burning the Ugly Eagles for six 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Junior Luke Hansen drilled three long-range bombs, senior Rashod Cotton Jr. added two and sophomore Alonzo Walker III another. Dougherty Valley built a 15-5 lead just more than four minutes into the game, a difference that Clayton Valley shaved to 20-14 by the end of the period.

Cotton led all scorers with 22 points. Walker finished with 17 and Luke Hansen 12, all in the first half.

“I just tried to give us a spark,” Luke Hansen said. “I hadn’t been hitting shots lately. I had to get in the gym, and tonight it paid off.”

After being even at 3-3 early in the game, the Ugly Eagles (27-5) trailed throughout until they hit six consecutive free throws, the final four by Zion Grissom, to forge a 55-55 tie with 2:11 left.

The Wildcats regained the lead on a post-up bucket by junior Rylan Sevilla with 32.8 seconds left, and a Walker layup off a nearly full-court pass from Luke Hansen sealed the deal 7.9 seconds before the final horn.

“We got bounced by these guys (last week),” Luke Hansen said. “We didn’t think we played very well. We turned it over. Tonight, we limited turnovers and just made winning plays.”

Dougherty Valley, in fact, gave away the ball only four times all night, just once in the third quarter and not at all in the fourth.

“Those guys always, in pressure moments, they always just execute really well,” Clayton Valley coach Frank Allocco Jr. said. “They get the shots they want. They did a good job of that all night.

“We always have kind of fed off our defense. Early in the game, we just couldn’t get stops. It’s tough because I do feel like we didn’t give our best effort to start that game. I felt like we were down a little bit, so that’s disappointing.”

Grissom and Vince Ellis, two of four Ugly Eagles seniors, had 14 points apiece.

“I told them one night doesn’t really tell the story about my senior class,” Allocco said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better group.”