CONCORD — De La Salle did the best it could without its star player.
The Concord school was without star player and Oklahoma commit Alec Blair heading into its big-time matchup with Sunnyslope-Phoenix at the De La Salle MLK Classic, but showed fight in its 53-46 loss at home.
Junior Ibrahim Monawar led De La Salle with 15 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Blair was a last-minute scratch from Monday’s game with a shoulder injury and is questionable to play tonight against Dublin, per De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder.
“We didn’t play great tonight,” Schroeder said. “We gotta get better and obviously with taking two losses in a row, we hit some adversity. With a huge game in league play tomorrow, we gotta get better quickly.”
De La Salle kept the score close in the first half, keeping the high-powered Sunnyslope offense led by 6-foot-11 sophomore Darius Wabbington under control.
But in the third, the Arizona school found its groove.
The Vikings ended the third quarter on a 10-2 run as the Spartans struggled to hit shots. Sunnyslope took a 12-point lead on a Wabbington alley-oop dunk.
Wabbington finished with 15 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
The Spartans made it interesting in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to five after Monawar made one of two free throws. But De La Salle couldn’t get enough stops to get any closer as the Spartans dropped back-to-back games for the first time this season.
“We’ve had a great year, but we haven’t played well the last two games,” Schroeder said. “We got to do some soul searching.
No. 4 San Ramon Valley 76, Bishop O’Dowd 66
SRV cruised to a comfortable win in the opening game of the MLK Classic at De La Salle.
The Wolves took a four-point halftime lead and outscored the Dragons 17-10 in the third quarter behind Elliot Conley, who finished with a game-high 22 points. Luke Isaak totaled 18 points and Thomas Conley added 19.
“I think the 9 a.m. component was the hardest thing,” SRV coach Brian Botteen said. “I thought the first half was good for a 9 a.m. game, but that’s not who they are. They really turned around in the second half. The execution in that third quarter really opened that game up.”
Josh Green led O’Dowd with 21 points. Brandon Roundtree and Ose Oriabure each had 10 points.
Riverside Poly 66, No. 7 Moreau Catholic 56
Pacific-bound forward Kellen Hampton scored a game-high 26 points, but fouled out in the fourth quarter as the Mariners fell to Riverside Poly.
Moreau held a six-point lead at halftime, but watched its advantage evaporate as the Bears outscored the Mariners 15-3 in the third period.
JRob Croy finished with 25 points for Poly and Chris Holland had 21.
“Anytime you score three points in a quarter, it’s going to be tough for you to win,” Moreau coach Frank Knight said. “We were up 14 in the first half, but in the third we just came out kind of flat.”
Girls basketball
No. 4 San Ramon Valley 54, Francis Parker 50
Alyssa Rudd took home the game MVP at the St. Mary’s-Stockton MLK showcase, finishing with 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead SRV over Francis Parker of San Diego.
Ella Gunderson totaled 17 points and eight boards while Hania Bowes scored seven, which included a clutch 3-pointer down the stretch.
No. 15 Bishop O’Dowd 50, No. 18 California 43
Jayla Stokes made three 3-pointers and scored a team-high 18 points as host Bishop O’Dowd defeated California in the program’s annual MLK Day showcase. Teammate Madison Gordon, who is committed to Tulane, chipped in 11 points to join Stokes in double figures.
Cal senior Taylor Lim showed off a flair for the dramatic, beating the buzzer with jump shots to end the second and third quarters. Sofie Addiego led all Grizzlies with 14 points as Cal dropped to 11-7. Bishop O’Dowd improved to 10-6.
Centennial-Las Vegas 81, No. 7 Piedmont 66
Youthful Piedmont kept up with the visitors from Nevada for a while at O’Dowd before Centennial pulled away in the fourth. Briana Webb, one of the few upperclassmen on the team, led the Highlanders with 24 points. Freshman Andrea Martin scored 10, as did fellow first-year player Jennelle Solis.
Centennial forward Nation Williams led the Bulldogs with 24 points, and freshman guard D’Arrah Mitchell had 22. Piedmont dropped to 13-3.
Bay Area News Group’s Joseph Dycus contributed to this report