DANVILLE — San Ramon Valley’s offense is a symphony of crisp passes and free-flowing ball movement, which often leads to open shots all over the floor.
But on Thursday night, the high-powered offense was no match for the brute force and power of De La Salle’s defense.
De La Salle put on a clinic on the defensive end as the Spartans shut down SRV’s offense en route to a gritty 60-51 victory on the road in the East Bay Athletic League semifinals. The Concord school will play Dougherty Valley for the EBAL title on Saturday.
“We were just ready defensively,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said. “They’re such a good offensive team with so many weapons and we guarded them well. … The start for our team is on defense. If we can guard and we can get buckets in transition, it helps our offense.”
Oklahoma commit Alec Blair led De La Salle with 26 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Senior center David Balogun had nine points and 11 rebounds and senior guard Bryce Patton added 11 points with three made 3-pointers.
“We didn’t do too much. We just played our game,” Blair said. “We’re the best team in NorCal. I think that win clinches us a high seed in the North Coast Section Open Division, which is big time.”
SRV, which came into Thursday’s game as the top overall seed in the EBAL playoffs, struggled to find any flow on offense. Coach Brian Botteen didn’t mince words when asked what went wrong on Thursday.
“I thought we played our worst game of the year,” Botteen said. “I thought we relied on self and not the team, and they exposed us for that. There’s a difference between other teams and De La Salle. Credit to them. They punched us in the mouth.”
De La Salle didn’t let the home team breathe from the opening tip.
The Spartans jumped out to a 10-0 lead, capped off by a powerful one-handed slam from Balogun. A layup from Braddock Kjellesvig pushed the De La Salle lead to 16-2 just minutes into the first quarter.
Though back-to-back 3s from SRV point guard Mason Thomas and a transition layup from Elliot Conley cut the lead to nine toward the end of the first quarter, the shock of De La Salle’s start silenced the usually energetic SRV crowd.
SRV started to find its rhythm to start the second quarter as the Wolves cut the De La Salle lead to three on a layup from Luke Isaak. But the Spartans didn’t let their foot off the gas as they closed the second quarter in a 9-2 run to take a 32-22 lead at halftime.
In classic De La Salle fashion, the Spartans slowed the game down in the second half and took control of the tempo. De La Salle found Blair at the elbow and let the 6-foot-7 forward go to work as a scorer and a creator. Blair finished with seven third-quarter points and a handful of assists.
On the other end of the floor, De La Salle’s defense, anchored by Balogun, forced the Wolves into contested shots at the rim and on the perimeter. Balogun credited stopping SRV from driving the lane being the key to the win.
“We’re really good on defense and that’s one thing we take a lot of pride in,” Balogun said. “We always focus on playing team defense and not individual defense.”
Though SRV made it interesting down the stretch, it was much of the same from De La Salle. Blair threw down a two-handed slam off a SRV turnover to give De La Salle a 51-35 lead – its largest of the night.
From that point, SRV went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to seven with just over three minutes to go, but it was too late.
A Patton 3, a Balogun post hook and a layup from Ibrahim Monawar extended De La Salle’s lead to 14 with just over a minute left as the Spartans cruised to the win.
De La Salle, which came into Thursday’s game as the No. 4 seed, defeated Dublin 54-41 on Wednesday. Schroeder said playing an extra game helped the Spartans get ready for a tough road test at SRV.
“I think when we play these tournaments and you play the night before, in a way it helps,” Schroeder said. “We had a little momentum coming into last night and they hadn’t played since last Friday, so I think maybe that has something to do with it.”
SRV coach Brian Botteen didn’t think rust played a big factor in the loss.
“I thought our practices have been good. I thought our preparation was good,” Botteen said. “This caught everybody off guard. We weren’t overconfident, but we felt we were ready.”
Thursday’s win also had bigger postseason ramifications as both programs are expected to be in the NCS Open Division. As of Thursday night, MaxPreps has De La Salle as the top team in the North Coast Section and SRV right behind the Spartans.
“The MaxPreps computer rankings has us No. 1 by a lot,” Schroeder said. “I think that means a lot in the committees’ eyes, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
De La Salle will get another crack at Dougherty Valley on Friday, a team that beat the Spartans handedly earlier this season. Dougherty Valley beat California 70-54 on Friday to advance to the EBAL title game.
