De La Salle's Alec Blair (33) celebrates a basket and a foul against Archbishop Mitty High School in the third quarter in their CIF NorCal Open Division first-round game at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
De La Salle went the final 2:23 of the fourth quarter without scoring, and that was the difference as host Modesto Christian came from behind to edge the Spartans 57-56 in a CIF NorCal Open Division semifinal game Saturday night.
The Crusaders (27-6) will host St. Joseph-Santa Maria on Tuesday for the Open Division title. St. Joseph, seeded third, knocked off No. 2 seed Dougherty Valley 87-76.
Modesto is the No. 1 seed.
Fifth-seeded De La Salle (22-9) gave the Crusaders everything they could handle. The Spartans had a double-digit lead in the first half and led 56-55 with 2:23 to go on a dunk by Alec Blair. But DLS could do no more against Modesto Christian.
Blair led the Spartans with 22 points and Billy Haggerty had 19.
“This was a high-level basketball game,” DLS second-year coach Marcus Schroeder said. “Both teams were doing a lot of shot-making, and there were not a lot of turnovers.”
With Modesto Christian leading 55-53 with 3:05 left, Blair hit one of two free throws, then 42 seconds later slammed the ball home to give DLS a one-point edge. But Crusaders’ team captain B.J. Davis got the lead back for his team when he drove through the foul lane and laid the ball in from the right of the hoop to make it 57-56 with 1:34 to go.
There was no more scoring.
De La Salle had a chance, getting the ball in the hands of Arshawn Salhki with just seconds to go. He put up a shot from the left side of the key near the foul line, but he probably didn’t get a good look at the basket with Modesto Christian’s Jalen Brown guarding him closely. The clock showed .8 seconds when the shot missed and De La Salle couldn’t get off another one.
“We battled, we got beat,” Schroeder said. “Modesto Christian is a really good team.”
Originally published at Mike Lefkow, Correspondent