EBAL champ, but Amador Valley is a No. 10 seed

So much for a late-season flurry and an East Bay Athletic League championship.

Amador Valley-Pleasanton finished the regular season with wins at No. 10 De La SalleConcord (57-55) and No. 6 Dublin (69-68), the latter on Saturday to win the EBAL playoff crown.

The Dons’ reward? On Sunday, they received the No. 10 seed in the North Coast Section’s 16-team Division 1 playoff field.

Amador Valley (19-9), which lost twice to Dublin in the regular season and once in tripleovertime to De La Salle, was seeded behind both schools.

Dublin (24-4), whose 21-game winning streak was snapped Saturday, is the No. 2 seed and received a first-round bye, along with top-seeded Clayton Valley-Concord (24-2).

De La Salle (20-7), the fifth seed, opens the playoffs at home Tuesday against 12th-seeded Liberty-Brentwood (17-9).

The good news for Amador Valley is it gets to host a firstround game Tuesday.

The bad news is that the Dons drew seventh-seeded James Logan-Union City (20-6), the defending Northern California Division I champion. On Friday, Logan won 65-61 at Moreau Catholic-Hayward (19-6) to tie for the Mission Valley Athletic League crown.

Moreau Catholic is the third seed in Division 2 and hosts San Lorenzo (15-11) in a first-round game Tuesday.

Amador Valley has won five of six — its loss in that span the triple-overtime game at De La Salle — and on Saturday, it led from start to finish behind Demetrius Williams (21 points) and 14 points apiece by Tommy Kramer and K.C. Tompkins.

Logan, led by Gabriel Hawkins (17.6 points per game), also is peaking. It has won seven straight and 11 of 12.

Only section semifinalists are guaranteed a spot in the CIF Northern California regional tournament, so one of them will be eliminated.

All eight teams in the Central Coast Section’s eight-team Open Division will advance.

There were no surprises with the selections of those teams, but after top-seeded Bellarmine (21-3), there might have been small raised eyebrows with Menlo School-Atherton (23-1) at No. 2 and No. 3 Palo Alto (22-2).

Often, the West Catholic Athletic League will sweep the top seeds, but Sequoia-Redwood City (22-5), coming off its third Peninsula Athletic League tournament crown in four seasons, took the No. 5 spot.

WCAL teams St. Francis (18-6), St. Ignatius (16-9), Mitty (9-15) and Serra (15-9) took seeds Nos. 4, 6, 7 and 8, respectively.

The WCAL’s strength is evident in the fact that lastplace Valley Christian is the No. 1 seed in Division 2. WCAL schools Sacred Heart Cathedral and Riordan took the top two seeds in Division 3.

Menlo coach Keith Larsen said he thinks the CCS playoff selection committee probably got it right.

“I wouldn’t say I was shocked we got the second seed, but I was pleasantly surprised,” Larsen said. “I know the WCAL has ruled the roost and deservedly so. We’re at two and Palo Alto three and we easily could have been at five and six. I would have had no issue. Everyone gets to play each other in the next two weeks, so we’ll find out.”

Menlo opens against Mitty, which needed two wins in the final week merely to qualify for CCS. The Monarchs had to fight back from a late seven-point deficit in Friday’s finale to beat Sacred Heart Cathedral 56-55. Though the Monarchs have just nine wins, one of them was over top-seeded Bellarmine.

“Their record means nothing,” said Larsen, adding that Mitty coach Tim Kennedy “does a great job, he has great kids and a great program. It will be a giant challenge.”

Play in all but two divisions between the two sections begins Tuesday.

Other top NCS boys seeds were: Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland (D2), Salesian-Richmond (D3), St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda (D4), University (D5) and Laytonville (D6).

Top NCS girls seeds were Carondelet-Concord (D1), Miramonte-Orinda (D2), Salesian (D3), St. Joseph (D4), Urban (D5) and Rincon Valley ChristianSanta Rosa (D6).

Other top CCS boys seeds were Piedmont Hills-San Jose (D1), Half Moon Bay (D4) and St. Francis SCP-Watsonville (D5).

Top CCS girls seeds were Mitty (Open), Menlo-Atherton (D1), Valley Christian (D2), South San Francisco (D3), Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton (D4) and Woodside (D5).