Modesto Christian stuns De La Salle at the buzzer: Live update recap of CIF Open NorCal opener

Fifth seed and Sac-Joaquin Section champion Crusaders travel to North Coast Section runner-up Spartans

With De La Salle's best player on the bench with an injury, Modesto Christian's top man won the game almost single-handedly. 

Gavin Sykes, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, was largely unstoppable the second half, scoring 18 of his game-high 20 points, including the game-winner at the buzzer giving the Crusaders a wild 51-49 Northern California Open Division opening-round victory on De La Salle's home court. 

After missing a tough runner in the lane with about four seconds left, the ball got batted around until Sykes grabbed it in the middle of the key. He flipped it off the rim, it kissed the glass and fell gently through the hoop, setting off a wild celebration for the Crusaders at the other end of the court.  

De La Salle's junior All-American candidate Alec Blair could only watch helplessly from the bench with a knee injury. 

Gavin Sykes, Modesto Christian junior guard, averages 21.3 points per game.  / File photo: Ralph Thompson

He sat out the entire fourth quarter after Sykes landed on him driving to the hoop just before the end of the third quarter. Guarded closely by Blair, Sykes drove to the hoop, glanced off De La Salle forward David Balogun and into Blair's leg. 

Blair fell and winced in pain, but quickly got up. With a limp, he then came down and made a highly contested midrange jumper to put the Spartans up 41-38 entering the fourth quarter. 

But the 6-6 wing exited to the locker room and didn't return until midway through the fourth, but only to watch the rest of the way from the bench. He was dominating through three quarters with six made field goals in nine attempts and 15 points.  

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Modesto Christian (28-5), the Sac-Joaquin Section champion, making their ninth NorCal Open appearance in 11 years, never wavered throughout, taking De La Salle's best shot early.

They got 11 points from Myles Jones, and 10 from Marcus Washington, but basically Sykes, who took only three shots in the first half, took over in the second. 

De La Salle.(25-6) fought gamely without its leader and missed a few highly contested shots down low after rebounds. Three-pointers by Leo Ricketts and Arshawn Salkhi and a interior bucket by Balogun put De La Salle in position to win without Blair. 

Modesto Christian advances to the NorCal semifinals to face Salesian (29-1) on Saturday.   

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The teams had faced twice over the previous 20 years, with De La Salle pulling out a 41-40 game in 2016, while the Crusaders gained a measure of revenge, eliminating the Spartans last year in the NorCals with a 57-56 win in Modesto.

On Thursday, De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said he believe Blair is fine, doesn't believe there is any structural damage to the knee. He made no excuses and praised the battle-tested Crusaders, but admitted it was a brutally tough defeat. 

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“It stinks, but give Modesto Christian credit,” Schroeder said. “They played a great game, their coach (Brice) Fantazia and staff do a great job leading a storied program with a winning tradition and a lot of pride. They came into our house and got it done. Congratulations to them.”

 Asked about the injury and the effects it had on the Spartans, Schroeder said: 

“I’m not a doctor but we’ll think he’ll be OK,” Schroeder said. “It wasn’t like an ACL. …. Alec is a tough, tough kid. He’s never missed any time with us, and definitely not an entire quarter. He was great with his teammates (on the bench) but of course we wished he was out there. We run so much off of him.

“It was extremely unfortunate, but we’ve avoided injury almost the entire season. The timing was horrible. It’s a horrible card we were dealt. But you gotta keep playing.

“I feel bad for our (seven) seniors. I’m really proud of the fight we showed all season and (Wednesday). If we take a step back, we did some great things this season. It just really hurts right now.”” 

Marcus Washington leads Modesto Christian to third straight, 22nd Sac-Joaquin Section title

De La Salle is led by 6-6 junior Alec Blair, who averages just under 20 points per game and 10 rebounds, while Modesto Christian is led by a trio of standouts in sophomore Myles Jones, junior guard Gavin Sykes and senior Marcus Washington, who combined for 54 points in a 68-63 win over Lincoln-Stockton to win the SJS championship. 

REFRESH AND check back throughout the night for updates. 

FOURTH QUARTER

Modesto Christian 51, De La Salle 49 (final): Sykes picks up his own miss and throws in two of his game-high at the buzzer to give Marauders amazing win. Sykes scored 18 of his game-high 20 in the second half. What a sequence. What a game. 

Modesto Christian 49, De La Salle 49 (2:20): David Balogun filling in for Blair with power layup. Marcus Washington takes feed from Sykes to tie it up. Great game. 

Modesto Christian 47, De La Salle 47: Sykes has now gone for nine in the quarter, all of his team's points. Big 3-pointer by Arshawn Salkhi, his first bucket of the game for De La Salle. Blair still in the locker room. 

Modesto Christian 45, De La Salle 44 (5:25) Sykes and Crusaders smell blood in the water. He scores five big points to go up to game-high 16 points. All with Blair in the locker room. Guessing he'll be out for the game. 

THIRD QUARTER

De La Salle 41, Modesto Christian 38: Blair makes last second midrange jumper - his seventh and eighth point of quarter - but he goes down with leg injury. He hurt it the previous time down. He's in the locker room. 

Blair with last second shot to end third. But lair might be out. Spartans lead 41-38. Great game. Seven lead changes in quarter. Blair to locker room. pic.twitter.com/U8qkR8TN1a

— Mitch Stephens (@MitchBookLive) February 29, 2024

Here’s play where Blair first got hurt. Next possession he made jumper but went down. Meanwhile Modesto Christian has closed to 41-40. Early 4Q. pic.twitter.com/kUn6QoIdJV

— Mitch Stephens (@MitchBookLive) February 29, 2024

De La Salle 35, Modesto Christian 34: Game see-saws back and forth - six lead changes - but Ricketts makes driving layup to put DLS up with 3:29 left in third quarter. But Ricketts takes hard fall to force timeout. Jams wriist, but not leg. Sykes heating up. 

Modesto Christian 30, De La Salle 29: Back-to-back 3s by Jones and Sykes plus fastbreak hoop by Bernard, gives Modesto Christian first lead since early first quarter. 

De La Salle 29, Modesto Christian 25: Two quick buckets for Spartans on Jones spectacular hanging layup and fastbreak layup by Monawar. Both have 9. Jones answers with 3. 

SECOND QUARTER

De La Salle 25, Modesto Christian 22 (halftime): Good quarter for Crusaders, who outscored Spartans 14-11. Leading scorer Sykes has only two points but — Spartans doing great job keeping ball out of his hands, but MC must good traily by just three. Myles Jones leads the Crusaders with seven points and a big 3-pointer by Elijah Payne cut into DLS's lead. Monawar didn't take a shot in the second quarter and finished with seven to lead the Spartans along with Blair. 

De La Salle 25, Modesto Christian 19: Leo Ricketts with his first points of the game, a 3-pointer for Spartans. 

FIRST QUARTER

De La Salle 14, Modesto Christian 8 (after first quarter);: Sophomore Ibrahim Monawar scores seven straight for Spartans after falling behind 4-3. Alec Blair with a bucket a the buzzer gives Spartans a six-point lead. Jeremiah Bernard hits two buckets for Modesto Christian. 

De La Salle 6-6 junior wing Alec Blair (33) / File photo: Dennis Lee