California: De La Salle Is At It Again

By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com

CONCORD, Calif. - It looks like the same old formula chewing up and spitting out promising foes at De La Salle High School these days.

Coach Frank Allocco, considered one of the best boys basketball coaches in California if not the nation, has another not overtly athletic bunch bleeding green and white, running backdoor cuts with Princeton precision, bombing home three-pointers with J.J. Redick regularity, and strangling opposing offense with UCLA Bruin brutality.

De La Salle's latest victim on Friday was Antioch, which came in with two of Northern California's top players, in 6-foot-8 St. Mary's College-bound post Tim Williams and 6-3 point guard Calvin Douglas, arguably the state's most improved player who came in averaging 26.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.

The Spartans (9-1, 2-0), California's ninth-ranked team according the MaxPreps, flexed with a 68-43 Bay Valley Athletic League victory, holding the Panthers (7-5, 1-1) to 24 points below their season average.

Williams, hampered by a badly sprained left ankle - "I'm was about 65 percent (healthy)," he said - was relegated to the perimeter, making five of his six field goals on three-pointers en route to a game-high 17 points. Douglas added 13 points but was denied the ball most of the night by Brandon Smith and Jordan Estrada, and made just 6 of 16 shots and committed eight turnovers.

De La Salle shot 62 percent from the field (28 of 45) - mostly on layups off of offensive sets - and 50 percent on three-pointers (5 of 10).

Jose Rivera, a smooth, slashing 6-foot-2 senior guard, led the way with 16 points. Smith, a tenacious 6-foot junior point guard, added 14 and sharp shooter Dominic Martellaro added 11 off the bench, drilling three 3-pointers.

Afterward, Smith said as proud as he is of De La Salle's rich past, one which has produced two state Division I titles since 2000 and four Northern California championships since 1996, this is a new era.

The Spartans aren't just an over-achieving bunch as they've been perceived in the past.

"We feel we're playing a new breed of basketball," Smith said. "Of course we strive to do all the little things it takes in order to win games and to uphold our tradition. But we also feel we can lace them up and get after it like any other team."

De La Salle's only loss came to South Medford (Oregon) 51-44 in the semifinals of the Les Schwab Invitational last week.  The Spartans have averaged 61 points per game while giving up just 41.

The guard play has been outstanding, but the Spartans are also rugged and talented up front with a pair of 6-8 starting forwards in junior Jeff Powers and sophomore John McArthur.

Brandon Thomas, a 6-2 senior, rounds out the starting five along with Smith and Rivera. Martellaro, a 3-point specialist, has been a major spark off the bench averaging 12.7 points per game.

He had 24 points, including six 3-pointers in a 64-38 BVAL opening night victory at Deer Valley (Antioch) on Wednesday. He has 27 3-pointers on the season.

"We didn't shoot the ball real well last year so we made a concerted effort to improve on it this season," Allocco said. "This is a great shooting team."

They were Friday also except from the line where they were 7 of 16, including missing two front ends of one-and-one chances.

"That was a little disappointing," Allocco said.

Said Williams: "But they made everything else."

The Spartans were even more focused than usual possibly because they had payback on their minds.

 "That's all we talked about the offseason," Smith said of his team's 60-58 loss at Antioch last January that snapped a 46-game BVAL win streak. "We came out tonight with a chip on our shoulder."

Said Rivera: "We don't downplay stuff like that here. We wanted to reverse the feeling we had out there last year."

They paid special attention to Douglas, who had coming in scoring at least 20 in every game. But he clearly had never seen a defense like De La Salle's this season.

 "I definitely felt an extra burden to score with Tim not 100 percent," Douglas said. "And those guys play tough defense. The really deny and bump. That's what De La Salle does."

Said Rivera: "We just put (Smith) on him. He's our stopper."

Smith's been on the varsity since a freshman based largely on his defensive prowess. He's turned into a heady and clever offensive threat as he showed Friday making 6 of 9 shots while adding six assists.

The game was somewhat competitive until De La Salle went on a 10-2 run late in the second quarter on buckets from five different players, opening the lead to 33-21. Williams drilled his fourth 3-pointer of the half at the buzzer to give Antioch some momentum at halftime.

When he opened the third quarter with yet another 3-pointer, the lead was down to six. But Rivera made a smooth reverse layup and Smith followed with a pair of fastbreak lay-ups starting a 16-2 run to end the quarter and decide the game.

"I think defense has been a trademark of this program and tonight we did a very good job in that area," Allocco said. "We've played excellent on defense the last six games. We just need to keep working on making plays."

Smith and Rivera said making plays in games isn't the hard part.

"Our practices are harder and more nerve-racking than the games," Rivera said.

Said Smith: "It feels sometimes like the games are the easy part. We work so hard during practice to the point where we're almost like a machine."

Combine that machinery with the fire Allocco ignites and the guts and skills the players display and it makes for a lethal combination. In what figured to be a rebuilding year last season, the Spartans went 28-3.

Allocco, in his 17th season - 11th at De La Salle - has a record of 450-63 with three state title wins in five appearances (he won a state title at Northgate (Walnut Creek) before De La Salle).

What are they capable of this season?

"Our goal is always to get to the state-title game and every game our goal is obviously to win," Smith said. "We're obviously capable. It's just a matter of putting in the work and time."