‘This game was personal’: Dougherty Valley gets its revenge, topples De La Salle for EBAL title

CONCORD — All season, Dougherty Valley has been waiting for this game. 

Waiting for De La Salle. Waiting for the stage. Waiting for the moment where all the talk could finally be answered with something louder than words. 

When Friday night arrived, the Wildcats didn’t flinch or hope. 

They took control. 

Dougherty Valley defeated De La Salle 70-59 on the road to win the East Bay Athletic League championship. The San Ramon school turned a year of doubt, last season’s humiliation and months of built-up motivation into a celebration that exploded the instant the final buzzer sounded.

One year ago, Dougherty Valley reached the EBAL finals only to get blown out by the Spartans on its home floor – a defeat that stung and ultimately bumped the Wildcats from the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs.

Dougherty Valley spent the year hearing what it supposedly wasn’t. Not big enough. Not deep enough. Not built to be a contender. 

But after beating Amador Valley in thrilling fashion in Wednesday’s semifinals, the Wildcats wanted nothing more than to play the league’s defending champions. 

“This game was just very personal,” Dougherty Valley guard Rylan Sevilla said. “They came into our house and made huge plays in last year’s EBAL championship. So we made sure that we weren’t going to let that happen.”

Using a five-guard lineup, Dougherty Valley stretched out the De La Salle defense and wore down the Spartans’ vaunted frontcourt. 

Coach Mike Hansen, emotional after a week that included his wife’s breast cancer surgery, watched his team control the night, then lifted the EBAL plaque into the air as his players bounced and screamed beneath him, vindication finally in their hands.

“I just kept quiet this year for most of the year, but I knew what we had. I knew how good they were, I knew how tough they were and how deep we are. I let everybody else talk about who they were and how good they were going to be,” Hansen said about his team. “This one is up there in one of my best wins. I spent a lot of days coaching at Ygnacio Valley getting my butt kicked by former De La Salle coach Frank Allocco. 

“To come in here with what was on the line and get it done was amazing.” 

Alonzo Walker III, Rashod Cotton Jr. and Sevilla combined to score 60 of Dougherty Valley’s points. Walker finished 20 points and Sevilla had 19. Cotton led all scorers with 21 points to go along with eight assists and six rebounds. 

Junior Davit Pachulia led De La Salle with 23 points and seven rebounds. 

Dougherty Valley held a small three-point lead after the first quarter, but a pivotal sequence in the next period shifted the momentum in its favor.

Minutes into the second quarter, the game stopped as De La Salle was assessed a technical foul. Looks of confusion hit the floor until the officiating crew announced that De La Salle had a player on the floor not listed in the official scorebook. 

At the time, Dougherty Valley led by just three, but then hit two free throws followed by a Walker 3-pointer in what became a five-point swing for the road team.

Dougherty Valley used the mistake to its advantage, building a nine-point lead at halftime as its offense fired on all cylinders. 

“Our book was wrong and that was a big play,”  De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said. 

Dougherty Valley continued to slice up De La Salle’s defense in the second half. 

With its five-guard line, the Wildcats were simply faster and wanted to push the pace on a team with multiple players over 6-foot-5 on the floor. 

“We went all guards and we thought, if we could spread them out, maybe we could outquick them,” Sevilla said. “So our guys just made plays, got to the hoop and we’re able to attack them.” 

But De La Salle wasn’t going to go away easily. A 3-pointer from Pachulia cut the deficit to seven with under two minutes to go. The Spartans had the lead down to as little as four early in the fourth quarter. 

When the stakes got highest, Dougherty Valley once again summoned its clutch time magic that has gotten the Wildcats to this point. 

A 3-pointer from Devyn Ranola put the Wildcats up 10 with 90 seconds left. With the Spartans needing to foul, Cotton and Walker combined to hit six consecutive free throws to put the game out of reach. 

“We just got players. We have guys who want to make the big plays,” Sevilla said. 

Friday’s win puts Dougherty Valley firmly in the NCS Open Division conversation. Last year, the Wildcats were controversially left out even though they had two wins over California and a strength of schedule rating much higher than Liberty – two teams that got the final two open bids. 

Coming into Friday’s game Dougherty Valley was ranked seventh in the MaxPreps NCS rankings. The Wildcats, who are currently behind University-San Francisco, will need to jump into the Top 6 to make the section’s highest postseason bracket. 

The Wildcats believe they deserve an Open Division spot, but will be prepared for a long playoff run regardless of where they are placed. 

“We should 100% be an open team,” Hansen said. “But MaxPreps has surprised me before. I’m not gonna worry about it tonight. I’ll worry about it when the new rankings come out.”

Cotton added, “We should be in the open. That’s what, that’s what the goal is. And if they put us in D1 we’re just gonna do what we do.”