28 Feb Salesian High Wins, Earns Spot in NCS Basketball Championship
Salesian Pride junior guard Elias Obenyah, who finished with 12 points in the win Wednesday, rises up over a San Ramon Valley High Wolves defender.
Story and photos by Joe Porrello
The No. 2 seeded Salesian High won their North Coast Section Open Division semifinal battle with the No. 3 San Ramon Valley High on Wednesday in Albany, winning 77-69.
Salesian, ranked No. 27 statewide, entered the game on the heels of a dominant 33-point Tri-County-Rock title game victory after going undefeated in league play for the seventh time in eight seasons.
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- Pride junior forward Carlton Perrilliat led his team in scoring with a game-high 27 points, 12 of which came in crunch time.
San Ramon Valley entered having won 10 of their previous 11 games — all but one by double digits — while the Pride had won their last five by an average of 39.
“They’re a really good team… it was a battle but we got through,” said Salesian guard Elias Obenyah. “This game shows we’re a battle-tested team… I think we can beat anyone.”
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- The Pride and Wolves played every possession like it was their last, though both teams will play in the CIF Regional tournament to end the season.
Despite a first-round tournament bye earning them 11 days off, the Pride did not look rusty. Salesian head coach Bill Mellis said the break gave his team time to get healthy after practices that, as he put it, sounded like “surround sound of coughing and hacking.”
“Everyone was competitive,” Obenyah said. “They were just waiting for this.”
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- Pride junior guard Elias Obenyah elevates for a shot en route to his 12-point total.
Salesian has just two seniors — compared with nine on the Wolves roster — but what they lack in age, they make up for in height with all 15 players over 6 feet tall; the Wolves team have more than five players under the 6-foot mark.
Junior teammates 6-foot-6 guard Leon Powe and 6-foot-5 forward Carlton Perrilliat were the only Salesian players to score in the first quarter.
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- Pride junior forward Leon Powe got his team out of the gates with fervor, scoring all nine of his points in the first quarter.
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- Pride junior forward Carlton Perrilliat was a menace down low at the rim and a headache for Wolves defenders.
Both teams scored on four of their first five possessions, and Salesian led 14-13 halfway through the frame. Then, they went into the first break knotted at 16.
The second quarter proved to be the deciding frame, as the Pride compiled their best scoring quarter with 25 points and San Ramon Valley managed just 13 — their lowest output. Sophomore Pride guard Asante Johnson and guard Elias Obenyah scored eight apiece in the frame and finished with 10 and 12, respectively.
“We’re an all-around team… we have a lot of guys that can easily go average 20 or 25 (points per game) at a different school, but they come here to work hard,” said Perrilliat.
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- Pride sophomore guard Ronnie Selleaze towers over a Wolves senior ball handler in transition.
Junior guard Isaiah Davis nailed a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, giving the Pride a 12-point lead.
Salesian came out of the locker room lacking energy and only produced 13 points in the third quarter, enabling San Ramon Valley to stay in striking distance.
As the Pride ran their offense to drain time off the clock in the fourth, the Wolves got hot from the field and had their best shooting frame. With five minutes remaining, San Ramon Valley cut the deficit to just six points.
“In the second half, we didn’t buckle when they went on their run,” Perrilliat said. “We kept pushing.”
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- The Wolves bench got gradually more vocal as the game grew on and the deficit narrowed.
Scoring 12 in the final quarter, Perrilliat almost single-handedly fended off any chance of a comeback. He finished with a game-high 27 points, accounting for over one-third of his team’s total.
“It was definitely my teammates helping; they create lanes for me with their boxouts,” said Perrilliat.
Senior Wolves captain and guard Luke Issak, who was recently awarded first-team all-league, paced his team on offense with 21 points. Right behind him were captains and brothers senior forward Thomas Conley and senior guard Elliot Conley — the former with 17 points and the latter with 16.
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- Wolves senior captains and brothers, guard Thomas Conley, left, and forward Elliot flank Elias Obenyah alongside the free throw line.
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- Pride and Wolves players put aside their competitiveness and exchanged postgame pleasantries.
Owning one of the top defenses in California, Salesian has surrendered an average of only 45 points per game this season; the 69 in this win is one off their high of 70 allowed in a victory.
The victory earns the Pride a chance at back-to-back NCS tournament titles with a showdown against No. 1 seeded De La Salle (26-4) Saturday at Dublin High. The Spartans, who beat San Ramon Valley in the East Bay League title game earlier this month, are ranked No. 70 nationally and No. 13 statewide.
“They’re obviously one of the best teams in the Bay Area this year, so we’re going to have our hands full,” said Mellis.
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- Pride players engage in a special handshake before the opening tip-off.
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