No team had a more impressive win on Friday night than California High.
The San Ramon school stunned De La Salle 67-48 in its regular season finale, notching its best win of the season in dominant fashion.
“All credit to the kids because they believed and really played hard,” Cal coach Steve Ohlmeyer told the Bay Area News Group. “It was our senior night and we had a lot of energy in that gym. We had a game plan going in and our guys ran it to a tee.”
Senior Dane Wallace led Cal with 23 points. Brayde Kuykendall had 15 points and Sib Sankar added 14.
De La Salle star and Oklahoma commit Alec Blair led all scorers with 33 points, but the Spartans struggled to find scoring from anyone else.
The win was just the second time since 2004 that Cal has beaten De La Salle. Going into Friday’s game, the Concord school held a 29-1 record over the Grizzlies, with its only other loss coming in January 2022.
Ohlmeyer said he dedicated the win to former Cal and San Ramon Valley coach Hans de Lannoy, who died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer.
“Hans got me into coaching at Cal High when he was the varsity coach,” Ohlmeyer said. “He’s been a friend and a mentor to me for 40 years. Tonight, there was definitely a lot of energy in the room.
“Hans always told us, ‘Approach the game like it’s your last game.’ And I talked to the kids about that, and about giving a performance that would make him proud, too. … I told them to go out and win the game for each other because they deserve it.”
Ohlmeyer is hoping the victory could solidify a place for Cal in the North Coast Section Open Division.
“I would hope a win like tonight puts us in the Open,” he said. “De La Salle is a top ranked team in the area, and we knocked them off. We beat Dublin, which is a little bit above us too, and we beat them most recently in our league on the road. So I don’t know, you tell me, why aren’t we a lock in the Open?”
Cal led 30-26 at halftime, but broke the game open in the third quarter.
Wallace and junior Emeka Ifediora combined for 13 of Cal’s 21 third quarter points. Defensively, the Grizzlies allowed just 11 points, limiting players outside of Blair from scoring.
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Going into the final period, Cal led by 14 and didn’t let up. Wallace and Sankar poured in 13 points combined and continued to play solid defense.
“Our big thing was trying to limit them to one shot,” Ohlmeyer said. “All the credit goes to Anish Chilikuri and Ketan Kumar. Even guards like Sib Sankar and Brayde Kuykendall, those guys had a lot of big rebounds.”
After a 20-1 start to the season, California came down to earth in the last few weeks. The Grizzlies took blowout losses to SRV and Dougherty Valley at home while barely edging out Foothill and Livermore – two teams at the bottom of the EBAL standings.
But Ohlmeyer said it was during that stretch that the team built more confidence going into Friday’s game against De La Salle.
“No game is easy,” he said. “Tight game in overtime at Livermore, those are the kind of games that help you prepare for these games. … Ultimately, all the teams in our league are extremely well coached, and there’s a lot of talent in our league. So, you just never know what’s going to happen every night.”
