Photos: See Dougherty Valley's historic first NCS Open championship with impressive win over De La Salle

MORAGA, Calif. — The East Bay Athletic League, with loads of basketball history, had never been better than in 2023.

Dougherty Valley, a 15-year-old school from San Ramon that started 2-23 in its very first season, powered through the vaunted league to take both the round robin and league championship against six other teams that had been ranked among the Bay Area's top 20.

Five of the six teams in the North Coast Section's Open Division came from the EBAL, backing up its claim as perhaps the best in Northern California.

The battle-tested Wildcats powered right through, culminated with Friday's 69-55 victory over De La Salle-Concord at jammed packed St. Mary's College.

Ryan Beasley, the highly-charged and skilled 5-foot-11 point guard, once again led Dougherty Valley with 21 points, Connor Sevilla added 13, Blake Hudson 12 points and eight rebounds and Aadi Malali contributed 10 points including a pair of key 3-pointers in the second half.

Billy Haggerty and Evan Wells led the Spartans with 12 points apiece and Alec Blair, the Spartans' top player, had 11 points and eight rebounds in about 18 minutes of play due to foul trouble. He fouled out with 3:45 left.

The Wildcats (27-3) will likely be a No. 1 or 2 seed in next week's CIF Northern California Regional. De La Salle (21-8) will wait for its place in Sunday's seeding meeting.

Here are fantastic images from Greg Jungferman