Salesian was the best team in the North Coast Section during the regular season and quite possibly the Bay Area.
The Pride rolled through its league schedule with one blowout after another, as it always does, and went toe-to-toe with as many heavyweights as longtime coach Bill Mellis could find to toughen the team up for the big games in late February and March.
The first of those big games was Wednesday night.
And Salesian needed to be tough and gritty, patient and resolved to survive and rally past De La Salle 54-51 in an NCS Open Division semifinal at Albany High.
Top-seeded Salesian trailed by five at halftime and gave up the first six points of the third quarter to fall behind by 11 to the team that beat the Pride in last season’s Open final.
Mellis called timeout.
“We just needed more energy,” he said. “That wasn’t us. It was just like, ‘OK, we’re either going to tank it right now or make a little run. Let’s regroup and let’s play.’
“We just needed a big kumbaya moment.”
Salesian (26-3) found what it was lacking. It settled down, quickly clawed its way back and had just enough down the stretch to hold off the fourth-seeded Spartans, who took two 3-point shots in the closing seconds in an attempt to stretch the game to overtime.
Elias Obenyah scored 17 points to lead Salesian. Leon Powe added 12 points and Carlton Perrilliat Jr. finished with nine.
“It was just one of those games where they controlled the tempo,” Mellis said. “We wanted to play a little faster. They did a good job of closing down lanes. They’re tough. They make it tough to score.”
Ibrahim Monawar had 16 points for De La Salle (23-7) but was unavailable down the stretch while suffering from leg cramps. Austin See chipped in with eight points for the Spartans.
Salesian, an 11-time NCS champion, moves on to play second-seeded Clayton Valley Charter for the Open title on Saturday night at San Leandro High.
De La Salle will play host to Dougherty Valley on Friday in the Open’s third-place game, which will be used for seeding in next week’s NorCal regionals.
– Darren Sabedra
DIVISION II
St. Mary’s-Berkeley gets off to hot start, downs San Lorenzo: After two lackluster wins through the first two rounds, St. Mary’s made sure to make its presence known early.
The Panthers opened the game with a 24-2 run and didn’t look back as they defeated San Lorenzo 69-57 at home to advance to the NCS Division II title game where they will play University-San Francisco.
“Through the first two playoff games, we didn’t really play that well and we were due for a good performance,” St. Mary’s coach Marshall Collins said. “This is the best we’ve played all season. As the win got closer and closer, I started to see my team build by themselves and they started to coach themselves and micromanage themselves without me having to do it.”
Christopher Baltrip led St. Mary’s with 19 points. San Lorenzo star Ronnie Selleaze had 16 for San Lorenzo.
St. Mary’s has come a long way since its rough start to the season, in which the Panthers had multiple players hurt. But once the Berkeley school finally got healthy, St. Mary’s has been slowly peaking.
“When we started the season, we had five guys in boots, so I had to bring up four JV players,” Collins said. “But we’re just now getting healthy. I give credit to those young guys because they stepped in at the beginning of the year and just played with no fear.”
– Nathan Canilao
Albany falls to University-San Francisco: The East Bay school took an early 12-point lead in the first quarter, but couldn’t hang with University’s high-powered offense, falling 69-50 on the road.
After falling behind by a dozen early, the Red Devils outscored the Cougars 28-9 the rest of the first half and didn’t relinquish the lead again to cruise into the Division II finals where they will play St. Mary’s-Berkeley.
Albany will have its season on the line when it plays San Lorenzo on Saturday in the third-place game. The winner will earn an at-large NorCal bid.
– Nathan Canilao
GIRLS
OPEN DIVISION
SRV cruises into final: For the fifth consecutive year, San Ramon Valley girls basketball is headed to the NCS Open Division championship game.
The top-seeded Wolves (25-3) left no doubt they’d be back again with a 74-44 rout of No. 4 Clayton Valley Charter (22-8), punctuating their return to the top-division section title game where they routed Acalanes 76-43 last year.
Fresh after a 12-day layoff, SRV got balanced scoring contributions from Ella Gunderson (16 points), Presley Uchikura (15), Kaitlyn Mills (13), Hania Bowes (13) and Alyssa Rudd (10).
On the glass, Rudd had eight rebounds, Uchikura had seven, Bowes had five and Mills had four boards plus five assists.
With a win on Saturday against second-seeded Carondelet, SRV would become the first back-to-back Open Division championship winner since the NCS Open bracket was instituted in 2020.
– Christian Babcock
DIVISION II
Salesian to play for another title: By its lofty standards, this hasn’t been a typical Salesian season. The Pride usually competes for Open championships. This season, the Richmond blueblood is making the most of its placement in Division II.
Top-seeded Salesian broke open its semifinal game against fifth-seeded Lick Wilmerding in the second half and went on to win 51-34 at Albany. The Pride advanced to play third-seeded Justin-Siena for the title on Saturday at San Leandro.
Faith Thompson scored 15 points to lead Salesian (20-10), which also got 10 points from Caileigh Edwards and eight from Emma Bryant.
Salesian will be aiming for its ninth NCS championship and third in the past four seasons. The Pride won Division I in 2024 and the Open in 2023.
– Darren Sabedra
Moreau Catholic loses a heartbreaker: Playing on its home court in Hayward, second-seeded Moreau was on the cusp of positioning itself to capture a ninth NCS championship but fell just short in a 47-45 semifinal loss to Justin-Siena.
Moreau led 28-23 at halftime, fell a point behind after three quarters and stayed in it all the way to the end.
But it couldn’t get over the hump.
Elisa Ortega finished with 13 points to lead Moreau. The Mariners also got 11 points from Abigail Wong and nine from Jennifer Schroeder.
Moreau will play host to Lick-Wilmerding in a third-place game Saturday, with the winner advancing to the NorCal regionals.
– Darren Sabedra
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