Sports
San Ramon Valley Loses to De La Salle in Thriller
Wolves edged out by Spartans 59-56 in CIF boys basketball regional semifinals
The San Ramon Valley Wolves lost to NCS rival De La Salle 59-56 Saturday night at St. Mary's College in the CIF regional semifinals.
The top ranked De La Salle Spartans (now 29-2) had beaten San Ramon (28-4) in their last meeting by a only slim margin, 55-53. San Ramon was also riding the momentum of a big second round win over Serra on Thursday night, so all signs pointed to a close game.
So close to St. Patrick's Day, I'm guessing both teams wore green for luck.
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The Wolves played the Spartans extremely tough, and controlled the lead often – just not when it mattered most. De La Salle will now compete in the CIF regional finals against Newark Memorial at Arco Arena next Saturday.
En route to the game, my iPod shuffled me a song that starts off with wolves howling. It was Michael Jackson's Thriller – and it seemed an appropriate theme song for a game that came down to the final shot.
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I'm gonna thrill ya tonight
With four seconds left in the game and the Wolves down by three, the Spartans had possession under the San Ramon basket. The Wolves managed to steal the ball on the Spartan inbound and kicked it out to junior Connor Kevorkian for a chance at the game-tying three. It was the kind of impossible shot every basketball player daydreams about making, but it just caught the edge of the iron and bounced out. De La Salle held on to win a game where the lead changed hands 16 times.
"Our kids played with tremendous composure all the way down the stretch," said San Ramon head coach John Raynor. "They attacked, they played relentlessly, they played with passion, and they played with a smart approach. They went after the top-rated team in Northern California and it could have gone either way."
Terrorize ya'lls neighborhood
The crowd could have been heard from across Moraga as De La Salle took the opening tip and junior Benny Battle immediately drove to the hoop for a layup. San Ramon junior Mark Tollefsen responded by hitting a three at the other end to give the Wolves their first lead of the night. The opening salvos had been fired, and the game was shaping up to be a close one between two evenly matched teams.
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle closely together
Neither team ever led by more than six points, and that was early on in the first quarter when the Spartans led 11-5. Wolves junior Tommy Garrett hit a foul-line jumper and senior Tad Fisher followed with a three. Senior Chris McNealy added a basket of his own before the quarter was out to put the Wolves back on top 12-11.
A sight that almost stops your heart
The second quarter began with a Battle-three that put the Spartans back ahead. They looked like they might start to pull away when six-foot-nine senior John McArthur made a nice move underneath for a layup that put them up 21-16. Those were his only points of the quarter, however.
"We full fronted him, we doubled him, at times we tripled him, and really tried to force him out of his comfort zone," Raynor said about his strategy for defending McArthur. "We took him out of the game for a good portion of it."
The De La Salle star forward, who scored 40 in his last outing, was held to just six points in the first half.
San Ramon junior Jordan Giusti accounted for half of the Wolves' field goals in the second quarter and had 10 points to lead all scorers in the first half. The Wolves were down 29-28 at halftime.
You try to scream
The San Ramon Sixth Man was in full effect again Saturday, getting louder with each subsequent quarter. They erupted as Fisher sank the first shot of the half to put San Ramon up. They went nuts when Garrett's pull-up jumper fell before the shot clock expired to put them up 35-33, and really went berserk after Fisher drew a foul on a layup, converting the three-point play to break another tie.
Neither team led by more than three points in this third, trading buckets for eight minutes. You could feel the tension building with the decibel level and San Ramon went into the final quarter up 40-39.
You hear the creature creeping up behind
San Ramon could contain McArthur no longer. The Santa Clara-bound forward accounted for 9 of the first 12 Spartans points in the fourth, finishing with 21 on the game. The Wolves held strong thanks to some key buckets by Fisher on a nine-point run that put them up 51-46 with under four minutes to play.
You start to freeze
De La Salle then went on their own nine-point run as the Wolves turned cold.
While shooting over 50 percent from the field could have been good enough for a win, they also shot 50 percent from the foul line (8-16). De La Salle hit a groove like De La Soul and sank 18 of 19 free throws, including all nine in the fourth quarter. McNealy, who dropped 34 points on De La Salle the last time the teams played, finished with just eight, and shot 4-for-10 at the charity stripe.
And though you fight to stay alive …
Kevorkian's miracle shot didn't fall, but in a season that saw the Wolves go 28-4, it isn't hard to find positives for San Ramon Valley basketball.
"The one positive that I'll take with me for the rest of my life is the dedication of our kids and our senior leadership," Raynor said. "I've been coaching for 35 years and this group of seniors is at the top of the list in terms of their ability to handle adversity, compete at a high level and demonstrate improvement throughout the year – a real cohesive group that jelled our team from day one."
"They have nothing to be ashamed of because their attitude was fearless," the coach added. "The scoreboard may not indicate it, but they're my champions."
