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CONCORD – De La Salle is used to running 21 points on the football field.
Well, maybe over 21.
Thursday night, the school’s defensive-minded basketball team got into the spirit with an explosion of three touchdowns (umm, 21 points) in the second half to break a close game against Menlo-Atherton .
In the end, No. 4 seed De La Salle won 53-43 to advance to the California Division I semi-finals of the Northern California Inter-School Federation Saturday night against Archbishop Riordan , first in the series.
Jeremiah Dargan scored 15 points and Chris Bunch added 14 points to lead the Spartans to their eighth consecutive victory.
The Menlo-Atherton season is over.
“We went through a few stops and that led to easy baskets,” said DLS coach Justin Argenal. “We sort of gained momentum and confidence.
“In playoff basketball like tonight, every team is tough. Each team is a champion. Each team is a winning team. They set the tone from the start with their physique. But I was happy with the way we responded. ”
Menlo-Atherton, fifth seeded, was 21-20 late at halftime and had a good start after the break.
But when Washington-state football player Justin Anderson was whistled for his fourth foul less than three minutes after the start of the third quarter, MA could not overcome the tenure of the tenacious goalkeeper .
Skylar Thomas briefly had a good time for the visitors, scoring on a basket ball that widened the Bears’ advantage to 27-23. Thomas, who finished with 19 points, fouled the game but missed the free throw,
M-A (23-5) stopped scoring until Anderson sank a 3-point pointer at 6:34 a.m.
DLS was leading 44-30 at the time.
“He tends to play unruly games, but I’m not going to take his aggressiveness,” said M-A coach Mike Molieri, questioning some of the calls to Anderson given the physical way the game was played.
“All of a sudden, it tightened,” added the coach. “It definitely changed our complexion. We can’t win when I don’t have Justin or Skylar there Maybe not D-I basketball, but D-I type soccer players. We never got on the right track when it came out.
“I had to call two time outs and all of a sudden we lost a lot of composure.”
Unsurprisingly, the first half was entirely defensive since De La Salle (24-7) led 11-9 after a quarter and M-A halved the deficit by two points after the second period.
Dargan’s rider started the race 21-0 for De La Salle. Miles Daniels followed with a layup around a backdoor screen. Dargan’s three-point play brought the score to 30-27.
Molieri called the timeout.
It didn’t help because DLS, it turns out, was starting to heat up.
“I thought we played selflessly, we made additional passes,” said Argenal. “I thought Bunch, at first, had big shots. Bunch made us hang out with some of his three to start with. Later in the game, Miles knocked a bit and Jeremiah did a good job of handling the ball on the right. ”
Now, Argenal and his team – like the other teams that won on Thursday – have a quick turnaround time to prepare their players for Saturday’s semifinals.
DLS travels to San Francisco to play Riordan.
“We have to watch the movie tonight,” said Argenal. “Determine our game plan, how we will defend them and how to attack them.”
