De La Salle outmuscles Dublin in road win, shows it’s still EBAL’s top team

DUBLIN — De La Salle didn’t need flash to prove its point. 

With a team built on muscle and size, the Spartans turned Friday’s game against Dublin into something that resembled the strategy of the early 2010s Memphis Grizzlies. 

Grit and grind. 

De La Salle led for nearly the entire game and never allowed Dublin’s high-flying offense to take lift as the Concord school defeated the Gaels to 53-43 on the road. Though Dublin made a second-half push to even the score, De La Salle answered with timely buckets and defensive stops to close out a gritty win. 

Mariano Lopez-Aarden scored a team-high 19 points to go along with 14 rebounds. Ibrahim Monawar had 12 points and four assists, and Davit Pachulia six points and nine rebounds.

“I feel like our bigs did a really good job and I feel like we did a really good job containing the penetrations and containing the drives,” Monawar said. “They got a little hot from three, but I feel like when we needed stops, we just buckled up and played good help and good team defense. That’s what really helped us.” 

Now 17-2 and undefeated through three East Bay Athletic League games, De La Salle continued to quiet doubts lingering after last season’s senior departures – a group that included star Alec Blair – and a softer nonleague slate, reaffirming that even in a retooled year, De La Salle remains the team to beat. 

“The summer is different than the season, but we got to see that Davit Pachulia is a really good player. Mariano is a really good player,” De La Salle coach Marcus Schroeder said. “We’re learning and growing – post-Alec Blair, post-Bryce Patton, post-Braddock Kjellesvig. It’s been fun learning as a team.” 

It was a defensive slugfest through the first two quarters.

High-flying forward Izaiyah Romero put Dublin on the on the board on the first possession of the game with a steal and slam, but it would be the last time the Gaels would score a basket until early in the second quarter.

The Spartans struggled early as well, scoring just seven points after the first 10 minutes. 

Both teams went into halftime unable to crack 30 first-half points, but a 9-0 run to end the second period gave De La Salle a 23-17 lead at halftime. 

After some halftime adjustments, the Spartans came out of the break determined to pull away. A 3-pointer  and a quick layup from Lopez-Aarden at the halfway point of the period gave De La Salle a 34-22 lead – the Spartans largest of the night – and forced Dublin coach Tom Costello to call timeout. 

But behind a rowdy home crowd, Dublin didn’t go away. 

From that point, the Gaels ended the third quarter on a 11-3 run to close the De La Salle advantage to four going into the fourth quarter. 

But even as Dublin threatened, the Spartans never panicked. De La Salle was methodical, getting the ball down low to its 6-foot-8 big men while playing solid defense on a Dublin offense designed to speed the pace. 

Junior Olanre Owoborode rebuilt De La Salle’s lead to nine late in the fourth with a layup before a 3-pointer from Dublin’s Aiden Li and a steal-and-score from senior guard Jess Viscovich cut the Spartans’ lead back to four with just under a minute left. 

But from there, the Gaels needed De La Salle to miss a few free throws to have a chance to win or tie the game. 

Monawar made sure that wasn’t going to happen. 

The senior made all six of his free throw attempts in the final 45 seconds to seal the win for De La Salle. 

“At the end of every practice, I always get with assistant coach Graden Travis and we always shoot free throws,” Monawar said. “In that moment, there’s a lot of fans and a lot of noise in there. But for me, it was just like, I’m back at De La Salle, in an empty gym, just shooting free throws. I really want the ball in those moments because I feel like I could lead us to that win. At the free throw line, there was no pressure.” 

While putting up a valiant effort, Dublin’s lineup was just too small for De La Salle down the stretch. Despite getting 25 points from Li, the Gaels couldn’t find consistent scoring anywhere else. 

Costello said he was proud of his team’s effort despite the outcome. 

“We’re giving up feet inside, but I thought we fought hard,” Costello said. “I thought our team did everything they could. We missed some shots and we left some points at the free throw line. But I thought defensively, we were phenomenal.”