CONCORD, CA - De La Salle basketball coach Frank Allocco as a prep back east scored a school-record 52 points in a game, making 24 of 37 shots. So when Allocco told his players Saturday night to "just put it up," they listened.
De La Salle, with Vince Romeo and Jordan Ratinho combining for 48 points and making five 3-pointers, defeated Serra 70-51 in the title game of the 27th Chris Vontoure Spartan Classic. The victory by the host Spartans avenged a 52-37 loss to the Padres in last year's title game.
De La Salle (3-0) led 29-24 at the half and then out-scored Serra 10-4 to open the third quarter to take control.
"At halftime I told them 'Just put it up. Play with confidence.'" Allocco said. "If you miss the shot, then just make the next one. Just play with confidence and don't worry about missing. If we win we win and if we don't we don't."
Romeo scored a game-high 27 points, including making a ridiculous 17-of-19 from the foul line. Ratinho scored 21 and took eight rebounds.
The first half was a battle, though, with the teams playing intense man defense and battling for rebounds as if they were gold nuggets.
DLS was clinging to a 26-24 lead with 2.8 seconds left in the half when Serra was called for a foul as Romeo attempted a 3-pointer from the right corner. He made all three shots to put the Spartans up five at the break.
The second half was all DLS as the Spartans out-scored the Padres 41-27 in the game's final 24 minutes.
Nobody on cold-shooting Serra reached double figures, with Paul Smoot, Lee Jones and Jake Killingsworth each tallying eight points.
"Sometimes it just comes down to shooting the ball and putting the biscuit in the basket," Padres' coach Chuck Rapp said. "They shot well and we didn't."
Added Rapp: "Now you look at what kind of shots are they getting, and that's where we can't allow them to take the same corner 3 time after time after time. We have to make them put the ball on the floor and make them make a play. We didn't do a good job of that at all."
DLS made eight 3-pointers in all, many of them on wide-open shots.
"The offense just flows," said Allocco, a former football quarterback and basketball player at Notre Dame. "These kids have very good vision. They get in the lane very well."
It was a good win for De La Salle, which went 27-9 last season, but lost four of its last eight games, including a stunning 54-47 setback to Lincoln-San Francisco in last season's CIF-State NorCal Regional opener at Kezar Pavilion.
"We needed to win this tournament," Allocco said. "Serra has been playing really well in this tournament and they beat us last year ... I thought a really good test for would be how we did against them and I think our kids really responded."
De La Salle is playing at a faster pace than ever this season and sprinted to a 7-0 lead in the first few minutes. But Serra made four 3-pointers in the next four minutes, with Jeremiah Testa's trey with 1:39 left in the first quarter putting the Padres up 12-9.
Then DLS exploited Serra's aggressiveness. Romeo made six free throws in the final 2:46 of the first half after Jones had brought Serra even at 23-23 with two athletic drives to the hoop.
Romeo and Nikhil Peters made the all-tourney team for DLS while Ratinho was named the MVP. Center Trevor Brown and guard Jimmy Wohrer earned all-tourney for the Padres.
Allocco was pleased with Romeo's inspired play on both sides of the court.
"He's one of the most underrated players in the state," Allocco said. "He is a terrific, terrific player. The best thing was that he neutralized a very good player. No. 5 (Wohrer) is a very good player. (Romeo's) offense was spectacular and his defense was tremendous too."
Wohrer got precious few uncontested shots and finished with six points.
As for DLS' new up-tempo offense and pressing defense, Ratinho fancies it.
"This year we're more of a running team," he said. "Seventy points is great for us. It's a lot more fun to play that way. We get a lot more shots up and more points on the board. It creates energy."
DLS next hosts Alameda on Friday at 7 pm. Serra hosts Burlingame the same night, at 7:30 pm.
You can reach John Murphy at jmurphy@prep2prep.com and follow him on Twitter @PrepCat
