DUBLIN, Calif. – Dreams of winning the NCS Division I crown came to a head Saturday night at Dublin High in a frenetic final minutes of regulation and overtime, and when the buzzer sounded it was Clayton Valley hoisting the first place plaque with an 82-79 defeat of Moreau Catholic, the team’s second straight NCS Division I title.
All of the Ugly Eagles’ points came from just four players, but one had the crowning achievements: Jake King. The senior big man, who is among several teammates to nab their second straight NCS title, had the winning basket – a three-pointer from the top of the key, his fourth trey of the game – as well as a punctuating layup and, in the last 30 seconds of regulation, a key steal, free throw and rebound.
“The last two possessions, Jake King has been our leader for two years, and I know how much this means to him as a senior, and I wanted to put it in his hands,” Clayton Valley coach Frank Allocco said. “I don’t think we defended great tonight, but we got the big stops there at the end. We stuck to what we do, we didn’t panic.”
King finished with a team-high 21 points and eight rebounds, while Julian Plaza had 19 points and nine rebounds and Elijah Perryman scored 19 to go with eight boards, three assists, and three steals. James Moore and Austin Drollinger rounded out the scoring for Clayton Valley (26-4) with 12 and 11, respectively.
Perryman was the third player for either side to foul out, doing so with 39 seconds remaining in overtime. Kellen Hampton hit both free throws to give Moreau a two-point edge, then King sank his game-deciding shot off an assist from Clint Rieber. On the following play, LeBrie Goudy-Lee drove inside for a runner. The ball was knocked loose and bounced off Goudy-Lee and out of bounds. Drollinger missed two free throws with 13.9 seconds, and Moreau missed a jumper on the other end. Plaza scooped up the rebound in a scramble and fired it at midcourt to King, who drove the remaining distance for a layup with mere ticks left on the clock, and the celebration began.
“I knew when I made that three, that we just needed one rebound and the game was over, and when we had the fast break, all the emotions just came to me and I had to finish it off,” King said. “It’s very special. It’s all about Coach Allocco because when I came to this school we didn’t have a winning culture and once we came here it all changed.”
Goudy-Lee had 23 points, eight rebounds, three blocks, and two assists for Moreau (23-6). Along with Hampton and Jesse Ybarra, Goudy-Lee fueled a 9-2 run that broke a 45-45 tie with 3:17 remaining in the third. The Mariners were clinging to a six-point lead halfway through the fourth, and a 71-66 advantage with 40 seconds to go in regulation. But a three-point play by Moore preceded King’s late heroics, the rebound of which came off a split free throw result from Goudy-Lee. Clayton Valley quickly inbounded and Perryman ran it all the way down to the other end. He went up for a layup and was awarded the basket on a goaltending call with 2.2 seconds showing on the clock. Moore came up with a steal at half court and heaved a shot which was on line but too high.
Ybarra fouled out in the closing seconds of regulation, and Robert Morgan, who tallied 22 points and had accumulated four fouls near the end of the third quarter, fouled out after being called for a charge at the 1:43 mark of overtime.
For Moreau, it was their first loss since January 16, and one that could have just easily been a win.
“I told them basketball’s about life sometimes,” Moreau Catholic coach Frank Knight stated. “You’re not going to win every time. You win the same you lose, with class. You honor the guys who beat you, you clap for them and walk off the stage. I’m proud of the guys for battling back but I’m definitely disappointed.”
“We were down six at a point (and) I told my team, ‘We’ve been here before, down 20 before, done this plenty of times, let’s go attack and play our game. We came out and got it done,” Plaza said. Both Allocco and King praised the freshman point guard during their postgame comments.
These teams almost met for the NCS Division I championship last year, when the No. 2-seeded Ugly Eagles triumphed over top seed Dougherty Valley in the title game, after the Wildcats downed Moreau Catholic in the semifinal.
“We have really spent a lot of time teaching these guys how to win,” Allocco continued. “We’ve used film a lot with this team because of their youth. Tonight it kinda showed. We knew which player to get it to, and we knew which kind of shot we wanted. Throughout most of that fourth quarter and overtime we were able to get the ball in the right place to win the game.”
