NCS Open Division: De La Salle survives buzzer beater, tops Moreau in overtime
CONCORD — Isaiah Clendinen’s rainbow hung in the air long enough to flip the gym upside down.
The Moreau Catholic guard faded into the corner, drifted toward the baseline and, with a hand in his face, buried a 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 62. The Mariners spilled onto the floor in celebration, Clendinen jumping in the air in what felt like his 29th and most defiant point of the night.
Across the court, though, there was no panic. No slumped shoulders or long faces.
De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder calmly motioned for his players to take a seat. Some Spartans clapped. They high-fived. A few even smiled.
Overtime wasn’t a crisis. It was just more basketball. And that composure became the difference.
De La Salle leaned on its balance and defensive discipline to outlast Moreau 71-68 in overtime in the first round of the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs.
While Clendinen dazzled and kept the Mariners afloat, the Spartans countered with three-double figure scorers, swarmed 6-foot-10 big man Brendan Williams and executed down the stretch to set up yet another postseason collision with Salesian – the fourth straight year the East Bay powers will meet in the open playoffs after De La Salle claimed last season’s title game.
“We just told each other that it was all good, that we got this,” De La Salle point guard Ibrahim Monawar said. “We just executed. It didn’t matter what they threw at us. We just had to stay together.”
Monawar led De La Salle with 17 points and four assists. Davit Pachulia added 16 points and nine boards while Olanre Owoborode scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Senior Mariano Lopez-Aarden had nine points, 11 rebounds and five blocks.
Clendinen finished with 31 points, three rebounds and three assists.
“I’ve been in those situations as a coach and as a player. There can be a feeling of dejection where you have the game pretty much locked up and they do that at the end of regulation,” Schroeder said. “All I tried to come with as a coach is positivity. You got four minutes. Let’s go, take the game. Credit our guys, because they got up four in the first few minutes of overtime and we came back. But these are young developing players, and they need that breadth of encouragement. They need that vote of confidence. And that was my message to them, and our guys stepped up.”
After a back and forth three quarters, De La Salle looked poised to run away with the game late.
The Spartans used a 10-3 run, capped off by a Monowar 3-pointer at the 2:50 mark of the fourth quarter, to take what felt like a commanding lead.
But Moreau had no quit, even when the odds were stacked against the Hayward school.
After Monowar’s 3, the Mariners went on a 7-0 run of their own to pull within one of De La Salle’s lead. Monowar responded once more with a nifty floater to give the Spartans a 62-59 advantage.
Following a key stop, Moreau had a chance to tie the game with 2.8 seconds remaining. Moreau gave the ball to the hot hand and he delivered.
Clendinen fumbled the inbound pass, but picked up just in time to sink a fading 3-pointer from the corner as time expired to force overtime.
In overtime, a calm and collected De La Salle focused on making the right plays. Moreau scored the first four points of the extra period, but that didn’t rattle the Spartans.
De La Salle forced Moreau into contested jump shots throughout the overtime period. On offense, the Spartans stayed patient and hit timely shots to build a small but healthy advantage.
The dagger came when Pachulia hit a dagger 3-pointer from the left wing to give De La Salle a five-point advantage with 14.3 seconds left.
De La Salle missed two free throws with under two seconds remaining, but Moreau’s last second heave from well beyond half court fell short as De La Salle escaped with the win.
“I felt like we were in control for the whole game,” Pachulia said. “We just played the same basketball that we’ve been playing the whole game into overtime. We stayed poised and under control.”
While proud of the way his team played, Moreau coach Frank Knight attributed the loss to the Mariners lack of execution in the overtime period.
“I thought after the four point lead in overtime, we were going to be able to extend and win but took a couple bad shots,” Knight said. “We showed our youth and it is what it is. I can’t even yell at them in the locker room. They played as hard as they could. The ball just didn’t fall a couple times for us.”
Moreau’s season won’t end as all six teams that qualified for the NCS Open Division get an automatic bid to the NorCal playoffs. The Mariners will face Marin Catholic in a consolation game on Wednesday – a game that will be vitally important for NorCal bracket seeding.
De La Salle will get Salesian in the section semifinals in what has become a mini rivalry between the two storied programs.
De La Salle got the best of the Pride in the Open Division championship game last year and the bracket’s semifinals in the 2022-23 season. Salesian defeated De La Salle two seasons ago in the open title game.
Schroeder said his team will have a tall task ahead of them when the Spartans play the Pride in six days.
“They are incredible,” Schroeder said of Salesian. “Coach Mellis does an amazing job. We know it’s not going to be easy.”
Dougherty Valley edges out Marin Catholic
In the other first round NCS Open Division matchup, Dougherty Valley found a way to escape with an 83-79 win over Marin Catholic on the road.
Alonzo Walker III had a game-high 27 points to go along with seven rebounds. Rashod Cotton Jr. added 25 points, Rylan Sevilla had 17 and Devyn Ranola scored 10.
The Wildcats took a 15-point lead into halftime after outscoring Marin Catholic 25-10 in the second quarter. The North Bay school fought hard to get back into the game, but the Wildcats did just enough to seal the win down the stretch.
Dougherty Valley will face No. 2 Clayton Valley on the road next Wednesday. The Wildcats bested the Ugly Eagles last season in the NCS Division I semifinals.