Thriller! Rylan Sevilla’s fourth-quarter heroics lift No. 17 Dougherty Valley past No. 9 Bishop O’Dowd

SAN RAMON — It looked like it was all going to unravel for Dougherty Valley. 

Early in the fourth quarter, two of its top scorers fouled out of the game. The Wildcats continually turned the ball over. Coach Mike Hansen was visibly frustrated. And the usually raucous student section was mute as a much more athletic Bishop O’Dowd team looked poised to pull away. 

But even when things looked bleak, Dougherty Valley’s competitive spirit never wavered. 

Despite being undersized at every position clawed its way back late in the fourth quarter to defeat O’Dowd at home 59-57. Junior guard Rylan Sevilla hit the biggest shot of the night as his stepback jumper from the right corner with 1.5 seconds left on the clock touched nothing but net and sealed the win for the Wildcats. 

“We kind of fell apart at the start of the fourth,” Hansen said. “The wheels were coming off, but this young group fought back, and that shows a lot about those guys. For them to fight through all that adversity and all that stupid stuff was huge.” 

Sevilla finished Tuesday’s game with 14 points and five rebounds. Fellow junior guard Devyn Ranola scored 19 of his game-high 21 points in the second half. 

“We had some tough moments down the stretch, but we also had big guys come in and make big plays,” Sevilla said. Devyn hit a bunch of big shots and it helped. It helped build momentum, and just the fact we stayed together, just shows that we’re young and we’re building toughness as a team.” 

Both teams struggled to get anything going on offense through the first three quarters and went into the final 10 minutes tied at 37. 

But O’Dowd quickly took back the momentum. 

A 10-2 run to open the fourth quarter seemingly put the Dragons in the driver’s seat. A technical foul with just over seven minutes to go helped O’Dowd build an eight-point lead. 

Senior guard Rashod Cotton Jr. and sophomore Alonzo Walker III – two of the Wildcats’ dynamic scorers – fouled out early in the quarter, forcing Hansen to go deep into his bench. 

At that point, the Dragons looked unstoppable as the frontcourt duo of Kaiden Gibbs and Ajahni Charles attacked the rim at will with more success than they had in the first half. 

With two of its best scorers on the bench, Dougherty Valley leaned on its two junior guards to revive a depleted team. 

Sevilla and Ranola answered the call. 

For the next seven minutes, Sevilla and Ranola accounted for 16 of the Wildcats’ final 19 points. O’Dowd had no answer for Ranola, who scored seven straight points to give Dougherty Valley a one-point lead with just over 90 seconds remaining. 

“I just saw that the middle was wide open,” Ranola said of his second-half hot streak. “I took advantage of the midrange and it opened up everything from there.”

Down two, O’Dowd put the ball in Gibbs’ hands and he delivered a game-tying layup with just over 10 seconds left. But it was just enough time for Sevilla to find a good look. 

Sevilla caught the inbound pass and proceeded to dribble down the right side of the floor. As he approached the rim, an O’Dowd defender stopped him in his tracks. 

That’s when Sevilla decided to step back and swish a jumper from the corner with 1.5 seconds left to give Dougherty Valley a two-point lead as the lights on the backboard flashed red. 

The San Ramon school’s crowd went crazy and stormed the floor, but referees put 1.5 seconds back on the clock as they determined O’Dowd called a timeout. 

It didn’t matter. 

The Dragons’ final heave from halfcourt fell short and the Wildcats’ iced their biggest win of the season. 

For O’Dowd coach Lou Richie, the game was lost in the details – the Dragons committed 27 turnovers. 

“We allowed nine offensive turnovers in the fourth quarter and 27 turnovers for us,” Richie said. “They hit big three’s. We let them stay in the game and get their motion, and now you allow them to see what they really want to do.” 

Dougherty Valley bounced back after a tough loss to Bellarmine on Saturday. The Wildcats started the year 10-2, but have struggled as of late, dropping three of their last five games.  

Hansen said his team learned from its early defeats in which the Wildcats fell apart in the final period. 

“We’ve lost five games this season and we were leading in the fourth quarter in all of them,” Hansen said. “I keep telling them, we gotta make winning plays. And it’s their youth and it’s their lack of confidence that they worry about making mistakes. We earn the right to play in the fourth quarter and go win the game. So I think that’s the biggest part of tonight, is like we finally got over the hump on one of these where we had a lead.”