Boys Basketball: DLS Defense Leads Spartans to NorCal Semis

De La Salle 51, Granite Bay 39

The Star: It was about as close to a team effort as possible, with the De La Salle defense stealing the show in a quarterfinal win in the CIF NorCal Regional playoffs.

The Turning Point: After Granite Bay cut the deficit to 17-12 just before the end of the first half, Remington White hit a three for De La Salle at the buzzer the close the first half. It sparked an 8-0 run that carried over to the second half, putting the Spartans well out in front.

The Quote: "We played our game," De La Salle senior Kelvin Morgan said. "We stayed tough on defense and stayed in control."

What’s Next?: The Spartans will host fourth-seeded Sheldon — a 76-57 winner against Santa Teresa-San Jose — on Saturday at a time and place to be determined Friday.

Bottom Line: Facing a Granite Bay team which employs a similar style to itself, De La Salle out-defended the Grizzlies en route to a 51-39 win in the NorCal quarters. The win  sets up a rematch with Sheldon, which the , and puts De La Salle one win away from a return to the State Final Four for the ninth time in 13 years. 

Note: The win is De La Salle coach Frank Allocco's 550th of his high school coaching career, which began at Northgate in 1991.

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If there was a list of the top defenses in Northern California, the Granite Bay High boys basketball team might be somewhere near the top.

There would be no question as to what team would headline the list — .

Granite Bay learned why.

Most nights, the Grizzlies would have been thrilled holding an opponent of De La Salle's caliber to 20 first-half points, but on Thursday it only made their eight-point halftime deficit seem like much more. 

As tends to be the case with playoff games, the tempo picked up in the second half as De La Salle cruised to a 51-39 win to advance to the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California Regional semifinals. The Spartans (25-5) will host Sheldon (24-7) on Saturday at a place and time to be determined Friday.

"We played our game," De La Salle senior Kelvin Morgan said. "We stayed tough on defense and stayed in control."

The formula worked. 

An 8-0 run which spanned from a Remington White three at the buzzer of the first half to a bucket from Elliot Pitts with five minutes, 51 seconds left in the third quarter was the Spartans' biggest spurt of the game. It put them up 25-12 and ended any realistic chance the Grizzlies had at making it a game.

Granite Bay (27-5) outscored the Spartans the rest of the way, albeit slightly, but there wasn't a moment which the Spartans' lead seemed threatend.

"I thought we played great defense," De La Salle coach Frank Allocco said. "At this level all the teams are going to be good and we knew Granite Bay was a resilient team."

De La Salle's leading scorer, Travis Pacos, was kept in check for much of the game, but found his groove late. The senior scored 10 of his team-high 14 points in the final ten minutes. 

"He really stepped up in the second half," Allocco said. "We were getting good looks all game, but weren't knocking them down."

The win was the 550th of Allocco's 20-year coaching career, which started with six seasons at Northgate before he was named the coach at De La Salle in 1997.

Preparing for Sheldon won't be as difficult as Thursday's meeting with Granite Bay. The Spartans already beat the Huskies once this year — a . 

"It's tough to beat a good team like that twice," Allocco said.

Duke DaRe scored 11 points for De La Salle and Elliot Pitts added 10.

Granite Bay was led by senior guard Robert Duncan (20 points) and senior forward Jonathon Davis (10 points).

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De La Salle 51, Granite Bay 39