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I’ve spent most of the year talking about the depth and quality of the East Bay Athletic League boys’ basketball league.
That being the case, I guess it stands to reason that four of the six teams in the North Coast Section Open Division playoffs are from the EBAL.
On top of that, three of the top nine seeds — including the top-seed — in the Division I playoffs are from the EBAL as well.
In the Open portion of the tournament, play begins Thursday night (Feb. 20), with the semifinals Feb. 26 and the Open championship likely set for March 1.
De La Salle (25-4) is the top seed and has a bye in the first round, not playing until Feb. 26, meeting the winner of Dublin (23-5, No. 4) at Liberty (24-2, No. 5).
Salesian is the No. 2 seed and also has a first-round bye, meeting the winner of the California (23-5, No. 6) at San Ramon Valley (19-8, No. 3). That game is set for Feb. 26 as well.
Because teams that don’t win NCS are eligible for lower divisions in the CIF NorCal tournament, there is a third-place game on March 1 as well.
In the D-I tournament, Dougherty Valley (20-8) has gotten the No. 1 seed and will host No. 16 Pittsburg (16-10) on Feb. 18
Monte Vista (17-11, No. 9) will visit Ygnacio Valley (17-10, No. 8) on Feb. 18, with the winner facing the Dougherty Valley-Pittsburg winner on Feb. 21.
Amador Valley (19-9, No. 6) will host Bishop O’Dowd (14-12, No. 11) on Feb. 18. The winner will play Campolindo (19-8, No. 3) or Northgate (19-9, No. 14) on Feb. 21.
On the girls’ side of the tournament San Ramon Valley (25-3, No. 2) and Carondelet (25-3, No. 3) represent the EBAL. Acalanes (27-1) is the top seed and has a 72-57 win over San Ramon Valley this year.
The Wolves have a first-round bye and play the winner of Carondelet-Salesian (20-8, No. 6) on Feb. 26.
In the girls’ D-I tournament, Dublin (22-6, No. 8) will host Northgate (21-7, No. 9) on Feb. 18. California (18-10, No. 5) will host Miramonte (17-10, No. 12) on Feb. 18 as well.
In the D-III tournament, Dougherty Valley (18-10, No. 5) will host No. 12 Pittsburg (12-13) on Feb. 18. Monte Vista (12-15) is the No. 10 seed and will play at No. 7 James Logan (15-9) on Feb. 18 as well.
NCS soccer
The EBAL is well-represented in both the boys’ and girls’ tournaments, despite the NCS at-large and seeding committees paying no attention to the EBAL tournament results.
De La Salle on the boys’ side and Amador Valley in the girls’ tournament, both won the EBAL playoffs titles, beating regular season champs Dougherty Valley and Carondelet on Saturday, respectively, but both teams were seeded behind the teams they just beat.
In the boys’ D-I tournament, Dougherty Valley (15-3-2) was the top seed and will host No. 16 Northgate (10-6-3) on Feb. 19. De La Salle (15-3-2), who beat Dougherty Valley 3-1 over last weekend, was seeded No. 2 and will host No. 15 Windsor (13-6-2) on the 19th.
No. 7 Monte Vista (9-5-2) will host No. 10 San Ramon Valley (12-7-3) on the same night as well.
In the D-II tournament Granada (12-7-1) is the No. 2 seed and hosts No. 15 El Cerrito (8-3-3) on Feb. 18. No. 7 California (8-7-7) will play at home against No. 10 Liberty (8-1-6) on the same night. Liberty and Cal battled to a 3-3 final on Feb. 1.
Livermore (8-9-4) is seeded No. 1 in the D-III tournament and will host No. 16 College Park (6-6-7) on Feb. 18.
In the girls’ D-I tournament, Amador Valley, who beat Carondelet and San Ramon Valley on the way to the EBAL playoff championship, was seeded No. 4, behind both Carondelet and San Ramon Valley. Monte Vista has the No. 10 seed.
The No. 4 Dons (10-3) host No. 13 Vintage (12-1-6) on Feb. 19. The Cougars (17-3) are top-seeded and host No. 16 Ukiah (11-5-2) on the same night, with No. 2 San Ramon Valley (10-2-0) hosting No. 15 Liberty (11-2-2).
Monte Vista will travel to No. 7 Casa Grande.
Three more EBAL teams will represent the league in the D-II playoffs.
Dublin (No. 7), Foothill (No. 9) and Granada (No. 13) are all in the tournament.
The Gaels (7-5-3) host No. 10 University (9-8-2) on Feb. 18. The same night, Foothill (7-5-4) is at No. 8 Clayton Valley (7-4-6) and Granada (7-4-7) is at No. 4 Urban (14-5).
EBAL wrestling
Here are the results from the EBAL wrestling championship matches.
Team scores: Amador Valley 217, Livermore 213, Granada 210, De La Salle 187.5, California 117, Dougherty Valley 110.5, San Ramon Valley 101.0, Dublin 99.5, Foothill 93.0, Monte Vistab87.0
Individuals: 108 pounds: Lytning Hazen (Dub) defeated Elham Hashimi (Liv) 11-3; 115: Adam Rezeik (Liv) pinned Dom Novosel (DLS) 2:49; 122: Kenshin Lin (DV) d. Yousuf Amin (Dub) 7-4; 128: William Gilmore (DLS) p. Drew Popst (MV) 1:44; 134: Nathan Marek (AV) d. Weston Coward (DLS) 13-7; 140: Jack Bronte (Gra) ,d. John Duncan (Foot) 14-5; 146: Troy Nichols (Liv) d. Charlie Harrington (Gra) 3-2; 152: Jayden Butiker (Liv) d. Jonathan Kim (DV) 7-2; 159: Alexandee Ortiz (DLS) d. Tyson Tran (Gra) 6-4; 167: TJ Chandler (AV) d. Joseph Labarthe (SRV) 5-4; 177: Luca Moore (AV) p. Noach Blake (Gra) 1:16; 192: Noah Awad (AV) p. Max Munzinger (DLS) 2:44; 217: Jayden Wood (AV) p. Adrian Rodriguez (Liv) 2:45; and 287: Asher Nischke (Liv) p. Wyatt Ferguson (DLS) 1:14.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
