DUBLIN — Any talk of Salesian winning back-to-back North Coast Section Open Division titles was quickly shut down by De La Salle on Saturday night.
The Spartans left no doubt.
Despite Oklahoma commit Alec Blair going down early in the second half with a sprained right ankle, the Concord school dominated Salesian in a 59-42 win at Dublin High to capture the school’s first NCS Open Division title and 15th overall.
De La Salle reached the Open Division title game for the last four years, but couldn’t get over the hump. The Spartans fell to Campolindo and Aidan Mahaney in 2022, Dougherty Valley and Ryan Beasely in 2023 and to an all-time great Salesian team last year.
Everything about Saturday was to finally put the doubters to rest.
“We wanted to make history,” De La Salle senior shooting guard Bryce Patton said. “Let’s get coach (Marcus) Schroeder his first NCS title. We were trying to do something big for this school and this program and we were able to get that done. It feels good.”
Blair was terrific in essentially one half of play, scoring 12 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists. Braddock Kjellesvig led the Spartans when Blair went down as he totaled 11 points, 18 rebounds and five assists.
“I thought that was the best game he’s ever played at De La Salle,” coach Marcus Schroeder said. “He was on a mission and you can feel it early in the game. … If he plays like that, we could go far in the next tournament.”
Aside from scoring the first basket of the game, Salesian never held a lead.
De La Salle led by 10 after the first quarter and had a 31-19 advantage at halftime.
The Spartans looked locked in to start the third quarter, but Blair’s injury momentarily silenced the raucous De La Salle crowd as he laid on the floor grabbing his right ankle.
On a made floater from the middle of the paint, Blair landed on the foot of a Salesian defender and fell to the ground in pain. He turned over on his stomach and shook his head as De La Salle trainers attended to his injury.
Blair went to the locker room and later returned to the bench on crutches and with an ice pack taped to his foot.
The injury doesn’t look like it will keep him out long, however. Blair said he plans to play in De La Salle’s next playoff game, which is likely to be on Wednesday.
“The ankle is fantastic,” Blair said with a smile and while on crutches after the game. “It’s never been better.”
Schroeder added, “Let’s get him healthy. Ice him up, whatever we gotta do. … I wish I had some magic potion to get him right. We got great trainers, so we’ll see.”
For a moment, Salesian looked like it was going to make its run with Blair sidelined. The Pride cut the De La Salle lead to 10 after a steal and score from junior guard Elias Obenyah.
But the Spartans were just too much.
De La Salle went on a 14-4 run from that point to take a 49-29 lead into the fourth quarter. From there, it was smooth sailing for De La Salle.
Kjellesvig was terrific with Blair out, making every play on both ends for the Spartans. Patton and junior point guard Ibrahim Monawar slowed down the pace and didn’t allow Salesian to hit any big shots down the stretch. Senior forward Brady Orr filled in for Blair at small forward and played a big role in containing Salesian’s drives to the rim.
When the final buzzer sounded, De La Salle rejoiced at center court. The student section rushed the court and the crowd cheered as the Spartans finally captured their coveted Open Division championship.
If losing the last three NCS titles wasn’t motivating enough, the De La Salle coaching staff put up dozens of pictures of Salesian’s win over the Spartans in last year’s NCS Open Division title game around their gym wall in the practices leading up to Saturday’s game.
“I can tell you personally that it pissed me off seeing those pictures because they’re not better than us,” Blair said. “I take full responsibility for the last three title losses, so it was about coming out here tonight and getting it done, not only for the team and the coaching staff but for our school. They deserve this.”
For Salesian, the loss snapped a two-year, 35-game winning streak against NCS opponents. Head coach Bill Mellis said his team was just not ready to play.
“It was a little bit of a lack of mental toughness,” Mellis said. “It was a big moment. It was a big crowd. They had a good student section. I don’t think we necessarily got rattled, but it was just one of those things where we kind of got off our game pretty early, and that’s a credit to them.”
