There was no stopping Jalen Stokes on Friday night.
The 6-foot-5, Dougherty Valley forward scored bucket after bucket for four quarters and ended the night with a school-record 47 points.
But it wasn’t enough to beat a resilient San Ramon Valley team.
In what was an all-time classic game, SRV pulled out a close 81-76 win at home to win its East Bay Athletic League opener.
“It was such an amazing game,” SRV coach Brian Botteen told the Bay Area News Group in a phone interview on Friday night.
Thomas Conley led the Wolves with 20 points. UC Irvine commit Luke Isaak scored 19, Mason Thomas had 17 and Elliot Conley totaled 15 points in the win.
Stokes, a UC Davis commit, played in just his fifth game since being ruled eligible to play after his transfer from Dublin.
“He’s hyper-competitive and he’s playing with a joy I’m not sure he’s had,” Dougherty Valley coach Mike Hansen told the Bay Area News Group in a phone interview on Friday night.
“He’s going to be a problem for the rest of the league and beyond.”
Dougherty Valley had control of the game early on. The Wildcats led by seven in the first quarter, but SRV battled back to take a 35-33 lead at halftime.
With the game close late in the fourth quarter, Conley and Stokes traded baskets until the clock hit zeroes. Stokes scored 15 of 47 points in the final period while Conley scored 11 points – eight of which came at the free throw line.
Dougherty Valley came within three points of SRV’s lead with 40 seconds left, but the Wolves hit just enough free throws to ice the game.
“The problem was that Jalen was scoring so easily that I kind of let the tempo get away from me,” Hansen said. “I would have liked to keep the game in the 60s, but when it gets to the high 70s, that’s more their style. They got so many guys who can score that if you give enough possessions, eventually, I just think that they’re gonna score more than we can.”
Hansen, though, was not disappointed in his team’s performance and believes it is a game Dougherty Valley can build on for next Friday’s matchup against EBAL heavyweight De La Salle.
“I’m not overlooking Foothill, who we have on Tuesday, but we have a big week ahead,” Hansen said. “We’re going to practice tomorrow, lick our wounds, come together, watch the whole film, hit the weight room, we’re going to laugh and get our minds right and get ready for the week ahead.”
