Salesian dominates Dougherty Valley in matchup of marquee East Bay programs

ALBANY – In one of the most anticipated matchups of the season, Salesian showed why it is the top team in the East Bay. 

The Richmond school pummeled East Bay Athletic League powerhouse Dougherty Valley 75-58 at Albany High School on Monday night behind hot shooting and lockdown defense. 

The Pride never trailed at any point of Monday’s game and have now won nine of their last 10 contests. 

Carlton Perrilliat led the way for Salesian with 15 points. Leon Powe added 13 points and Elias Obenyah had 10. 

Dougherty Valley guard Rylan Sevilla had 10 points in the loss. 

Dougherty Valley was without star forward Jalen Stokes for the 11th consecutive game. He was ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season just over a week ago, but the school is in the process of appealing the North Coast Section’s decision in hopes of getting the former Dublin High star back soon. 

“This is an important win because this is an Open Division, playoff caliber matchup,” Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. “I think we came out and did pretty well in the first half and established ourselves.”

Salesian jumped out to a 17-4 start in the first quarter and didn’t relinquish any momentum to the Wildcats. 

The Pride took their biggest lead of the first half on a 3-pointer from junior guard Isaiah Davis that made the score 36-21 late in the second quarter. 

While the Wildcats fought hard to open the second half strong, Salesian just wouldn’t let up. 

Obenyah found a cutting Perrilliat with a sharp pass and the 6-foot-5 junior finished a layup plus a foul, giving the Pride a 25-point lead midway through the third quarter. 

Later in the period, Perrilliat showed off his passing skills when he threaded a pass to Elijah Stanley for a fast break score. 

Salesian shut the door on the Wildcats with one play late in the quarter. 

With under five seconds remaining, junior Braylon Franklin stole a pass and quickly threw the ball ahead to senior Landon Yeargin. Yeargin barely corralled the pass, but made an athletic play to get the ball to Perrilliat who tipped in a layup in the waning seconds of the period to give Salesian a commanding 62-37 lead going into the final eight minutes of play. 

“It’s always great to have teammates you can trust,” Perrilliat said about the play. “My teammates were looking at me and I was looking at them and the ball just moved.”

For Dougherty Valley, Monday’s loss was the worst defeat the Wildcats had all season. Mike Hansen, the usually fiery Dougherty Valley head coach, watched silently from his seat on the bench for most of the second half as Salesian dominated the Wildcats into submission. 

“They’re really good,” Hansen said. “They’re long and athletic. We over dribbled, didn’t space it right and the ball didn’t move enough. That’s what’s going to happen. Once again, it’s Christmas and Dougherty is not really good. But I still think come February or March we’ll be all right.”

Dougherty Valley (7-4) will have another tough slate of games starting this weekend when the Wildcats play in the Santa Barbara Holiday Classic. The San Ramon school has games slated against Hillcrest Christian, Santa Barbara, Sierra Canyon and Oxnard. 

Salesian (9-1) will not get much rest as the Pride will be leaving for Hawaii on Christmas day to play in the Grind Session Hawaii tournament in Hilo. 

“Hopefully it’ll be a fun trip,” Mellis said. “A lot of these kids have never been to Hawaii. It’s going to be fun.”