PLEASANTON — When NCS basketball brackets were released on Sunday, the 7-10 matchup in Division I was met with a sense of astonishment as MVAL co-champion Logan and EBAL tournament champion Amador Valley were drawn to meet, with both considered criminally under-seeded.
One of those teams lived up to the hype.
The final score read 52-41 in favor of Amador Valley, but that hardly told the full story. The Dons led wire-to-wire, holding a 12-point advantage at halftime, widening that to as much as 16 during the third quarter and scoring the first nine points of the fourth to open up a 22-point advantage before the Logan bench made the final score look more respectable.
The victory made it four straight and six of seven for Amador Valley (20-9), and the one loss was a triple-overtime heartbreaker in which the Dons led by five in the final seconds of the first overtime.
Perhaps more impressive than the lopsided nature of the Amador victory was what didn’t go right for the Dons. Tommy Kramer, who scored 14 points in Saturday’s league championship win over Dublin, finished with just five, and 6-foot-8 center Tyler Nanney was in foul trouble all night, picking up his third foul just 18 seconds into the second quarter and a fourth midway through the third.
It hardly mattered. The Dons’ length and 1-3-1 zone wreaked havoc all night for Logan (20-7), as the Colts hoisted up 3-point attempts all night but connected on just three of them. The opening sequence of the game said it all, as Logan pulled down four offensive rebounds but failed to score.
Demetrius Williams was his usual self for the Dons, who were the 10th seed but hosted the game due to their status as a league champion. He finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. His putback with three minutes left in the first opened up a 12-5 lead for the Dons, and his three late in the second made it 23-13. After a Gabriel Hawkins bank shot, one of the only offensive highlights for Logan on the night, Kramer restored the double-digit lead with a three and Williams converted one of two free throws to make it a 27-15 lead at the half.
Williams was also key in creating separation in the third quarter. He scored four points in the first three minutes of the third quarter, with a one-handed dunk off a feed from Jaden Sheppard and then a lay-in off a Sheppard assist to stretch the lead to 33-17.
The Dons bridged the third and fourth quarters with a 12-0 run to put the game away. A KC Tompkins free throw and a basket from Sheppard made it 41-28 entering the fourth. A Williams three and a Sheppard steal and layup built the lead to 18, and after a pair of Mitch Benson free throws and another basket from Sheppard, it was 50-28.
Sheppard finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, and Nanney added eight despite his foul trouble.
Amador Valley will meet Dublin for a fourth time on Friday, this time with a trip to the CIF State Tournament on the line. Dublin won a pair of regular-season meetings, but the Dons won the EBAL Championship on Saturday. Round four, the third time they’ll play at Dublin’s gym this year, should be a doozy.
The only Colt to score more than six points was sophomore point guard Brah’Jon Thompson, who finished with 16. Fortunately for Logan, seniors scored just nine points, leaving tons of hope for the future for a program that reached last year’s Division I CIF Championship.
