High School

Oklahoma-bound Alec Blair carries De La Salle to EBAL final, gets rematch at Dougherty Valley, Jalen Stokes

National senior recruit kicking it into overdrive with 26 points, near triple double in 60-51 win at San Ramon Valley; Bay Area roundup

Mitch Stephens

De La Salle's Alec Blair during his season season at the Vontoure Classic. Blair is an Oklahoma signee and one of the nation's top 50 players.
De La Salle's Alec Blair during his season season at the Vontoure Classic. Blair is an Oklahoma signee and one of the nation's top 50 players. / Photo: Dennis Lee

Don't always get to make up for a big fall, but the De La Salle boys basketball team gets that opportunity following a wire-to-wire 60-51 East Bay Athletic League semifinal playoff win at top seed and round-robin champion San Ramon Valley on Thursday night.

Fourth-year starter and Oklahoma-bound Alec Blair had 26 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists as the Spartans (24-4), the state's No. 19 team moved into Saturday's 7 p.m. final at second-seed Dougherty Valley (20-7), a 70-54 winner over California-San Ramon in the other semifinal game.

De La Salle lost a 59-48 game at Dougherty Valley on Jan. 17 and roughly one month later the Spartans will be able to make amends.

The four EBAL semifinalists will not only all make it to the North Coast Section playoffs next week, but likely will all be elevated to the Open Division, which would also automatically qualify them to the Northern California Regional.

San Ramon Valley (19-8) never recovered from a 10-0 deficit and couldn't find its range from outside until the fourth quarter, connecting on five three-pointers, in one stretch three straight, two by Thomas Coney and the last by his twin Elliot Conley to close the deficit to 51-44 with 3:31 left.

But Bryce Patton (11 points) drilled his third three-pointer of the night, David Balogun (nine points) added an interior bucket and Ibrahim Monawar scored a fastbreak hoop, all in a hurry, all on feeds from Blair, to salt this one away, 58-44.

Monawar scored eight of his 10 points in the second half, but it was Blair all four quarters who was easily the difference. Whenever the Spartans needed a stop, rebound, pass or bucket, the 6-foot-6, national two-sport recruit was there.

He made 13 of 19 shots on a variety of leaners, floaters, layups and one three-pointer. The fourth-year starter has been the team's leader in points, rebounds and steals. His passing was particulary eye-opening on Thursday.

His fastbreak pass to a streaking Monawar had the perfect touch, not easy considering Blair was sprint up from the backcourt after a rebound. Blair is coming off a 33-point explosion in a 54-41 quarterfinal win on Wednesday.

"I think he's playing at the highest level he has played at De La Salle," De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder texted after the game. "And that's saying something."

Schroeder was most pleased with his team's defense, which gave up just 33 points through three quarters against one of the most explosive teams in the Bay Area. The Wolves, who got 17 points from Irvine-bound Luke Isaak, 12 by Elliot Conley and 10 from Mason Thomas, came in averaging 71 points per game.

The Spartans cut 20 off that total.

"We were pretty dialed in on defense, which is what I'm most proud of," Schroeder said. "It led to a lot of transition for us which was great."

It was a tough matchup for the Wolves, who lost previously at De La Salle 51-45 on Jan. 14. The Wolves had almost a week off after dealing with the passing of their popular assistant coach Hans de Lannoy.

SRV coach Brian Botteen thought fatigue of any kind was not a factor.

"We just got punched in the mounth by the more aggressive team and it stunned the guys," Botteen texted. "We missed some shots, and this is going to happen. It was the low percentage, limited ball movement, hero ball that did us in. Simply put, the boys need to move and screen without the ball and trust each other more."

They'll now have another probably five or six-day rest, which isn't always the best. Botteen is confident the Wolves will rebound.

"We will learn from this and move on," Botteen texted. "I would this was our worst game of the year. I know we will play our best game of the year in round one of the NCS Open. I believe!"

Dougherty Valley 70, California 54

Davis-signee Jalen Stokes had 20 points, Kenny Cloud 14 and Tyler Robbins, Alonzo Walker and Cole Roque combined for 24 as the Wildcats (20-7) bounced back from a disappointing regular season-ending loss to Dublin with a complete victory over the Grizzlies (23-5), coming off a pair of emotional wins, including a 57-50 quarterfinal victory over Monte Vista on Wednesday.

California had 16 points apiece from 6-5, 220-pound senior Ketan Kumar and 6-5 junior Brayde Kuykendall, but no one else scored in double figures. The Grizzlies overcame a quick deficit to take a 19-15 lead early in the second quarter but Dougherty Valley got contributions all around to pull away, taking leads of 35-28 at halftime and 55-40 heading into the fourth.

"The ball moved and the guys played off Jalen very well," texted Dougherty Valley coach Mike Hansen. "Jalen was unselfish and vacillated for his teammates and still scored in bunches when it was needed."

Hansen really liked the play of Stokes, Cloud and point guard Roque, who always gives up a ton of size (he stands 5-6), but makes up for it with quickness and court savvy.

Now the Wildcats get De La Salle, which no doubt will be champing at the bit to turn the regular-season score around.

"We're looking forward to it," Hansen said. "Two high level programs meeting up to determine a champion. It's always fun to compete against Marcus and his program."

Salesian 90, Bethel 34

Yale-bound Alvin Loving scored 20 points, becoming the 12th Salesian player to score at least 1,000 career point, as the state's No. 12 team moved into the TCAL championship game with an easy home victory.

Elias Obenyah added 13 points for the Pride, who improved to 24-2, and moved into Saturday's championship game versus St. Mary's at Henry J. Kaiser Arena starting at 2 p.m.

St. Mary's (20-8) defeated Albany Thursday night 53-39 in the other semifinal. The Panthers played Salesian tough during the regular season, losing 64-50.

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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