DUBLIN — Jalen Stokes knew the shot was good once it left his hands.
With his team down two points and under 20 seconds on the clock, Dublin coach Tom Costello drew up a play for Stokes to go downhill and tie the game with a shot near the basket.
But Stokes saw something different.
The Liberty defender guarding the Dublin junior had his heels behind the three-point line, daring him to drive to shoot. That’s when the 6-foot-5 Stokes stepped back and hit Dublin’s biggest shot of the season.
In a hard-fought playoff battle, it was Stokes’ go-ahead 3-pointer that was the deciding factor as No. 3 seeded Dublin escaped No. 7 Liberty 58-55 to advance to the North Coast Section Division I final this weekend against East Bay Athletic League rival Dougherty Valley.
Stokes finished with 23 points. Evan Bautista added 19.
Gavin Cook Whisenton had 18 points and Andrew Vixon chipped in 13 for Liberty.
“You get the ball in your best player’s hands and they make a play,” Costello said. “Heck of a player made a heck of a play.”
Entering the fourth quarter, Dublin was in control. The Gaels held a 49-43 lead and had momentum going in their favor.
But there was no quit in Liberty as the Lions slowly got back into the game.
Sophomore Dante Vigil, who was limping on the court for most of the third quarter due to cramps, hit the biggest shot of the night for Liberty.
Coming out of a timeout, Dublin ran a soft zone to take time off the clock.
But when the ball found Vigil, he fired what looked like an ill-advised shot from 24 feet early in the shot clock. The ball rattled around the rim before eventually finding the bottom of the net, giving Liberty a 54-53 lead with under two minutes left.
The Lions had a chance to extend their lead with 20 seconds to go with two free throws that could have given Liberty a three-point cushion. But Liberty made just one foul shot and gave Dublin a chance to win or tie the game.
That’s when Costello put the ball in Stokes’ hand.
Coming out of a timeout, Costello had instructed Stokes to attack the rim and look for his own shot or Bautista, who was on the perimeter lurking for an open look.
But when Stokes caught the ball and saw how Liberty was defending him, he knew at that point he was going to go for the win.
“I kind of slipped before the shot, but once I got my legs under me everything felt good,” Stokes said. “I practiced that shot a lot, so I’m glad I put it up.”
Tuesday’s loss was a crushing blow for Liberty, which came into the game as the Cinderella story of the bracket. The Lions upset No. 2 Berkeley on Friday and had high hopes of getting to the NCS championship game for the first time under head coach Jon Heinz.
The Lions also had hopes to make the CIF NorCals. But they needed the win against Dublin in order to secure a spot. Heinz believed if the Lions had a higher seed, things might have turned out differently with games like Tuesday’s being played at home
“These guys deserve to play on,” Heinz said. “Because a group of guys sitting in a meeting say that we’re the seventh seed can be the difference between sending us home. Using the (MaxPreps) rankings took out the human element out of the game. We’re not a seventh seed. We had one of the top teams in the EBAL on the ropes. My guys deserve more than a group of men telling them they’re not good enough to go to the state playoffs.”
Because the NCS has only 13 spots for its Divisions I, II and III schools, Liberty finds itself on the wrong side of a numbers game.
Six of the 13 spots go to the six teams in the Open Division, which were elevated from the Divisions I, II and III pool. The remaining seven entries go to the teams in the actual Divisions I, II and III brackets. The finalists in the three divisions qualify, along with the semifinal loser with the best seed.
Given that No. 1 seed Bishop O’Dowd lost on Tuesday, seventh-seeded Liberty is eliminated.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be on Dublin which gets a rubber match with rival Dougherty Valley in the section championship. Dougherty Valley won the first matchup 45-32 and Dublin won the rematch 64-53 five days later in the EBAL tournament.
“We’re going to look to settle the score and get one up on them,” Stokes said.
