Salesian
De'Undrae Perteete buried back-to-back corner 3-pointers in front of Salesian's cheering section that stretched the margin to 40-31. The 6-foot-5 senior led Salesian with 12 points.
“He was calling for the ball, too,” Mellis said. “We called his number and he knocked them in. He's a special player.”
Alec Blair tried to keep De La Salle in it, scoring 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter. But the star junior, who also had 14 rebounds, had to work incredibly hard for everything he got.
In the end, it proved to be too tall of a task.
“They just compete really, really hard,” Blair said. “They play good defense and we turned the ball over a little too much.”
De La Salle closed to within 42-37 on two baskets by Blair, but Perteete answered with a bucket down low and Isaiah Davis scored on a drive that extended the advantage back to nine with 2:11 left.
At that point, De La Salle needed a miracle, which went unanswered.
Salesian won its 11th NCS championship overall — the previous 10 in the Divisions II to IV — while extending its winning streak to 17 games.
The Pride's only loss was in overtime to Southern
California heavyweight St. John Bosco 6866 at a prestigious holiday tournament.
Since then, Salesian sailed through the TriCounty Athletic League's Rock Division and beat newly crowned Central Coast Section Open Division champion Archbishop Riordan 61-48 in an MLK showcase at De La Salle last month, a result that should elevate Salesian to the No. 1 seed in the Northern California Open Division regionals when the brackets are announced today.
Mellis saw signs that his team could be special last season, even through some growing pains. Senior Aaron Hunkin-Claytor said he knew for sure a few months later.
“I think it was in the summer when we saw that every player on the team was unselfish,” HunkinClaytor said. “We didn't care who scored more points or got the accolades. We just wanted to win.”
Trailing 20-17 at halftime, De La Salle evened the score three times in the third quarter but never held the lead.
“They're really good,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said about Salesian. “They're No. 1 in Northern California for a reason. I thought we did some good stuff. But you can't turn the ball over like that. We did a good job in the first half. But they got to us eventually.”