DUBLIN — The way the first half was unfolding Thursday night, Northgate looked as if it would cruise past Dublin in the opening round of the North Coast Section Open Division boys basketball playoffs.
The visitors from Walnut Creek led by 17 points.
But Dublin rallied to cut the deficit to six at halftime and grabbed the lead going to the fourth quarter.
Wobbled, Northgate didn’t collapse.
The fifth-seeded Broncos reclaimed the advantage and held on for a 55-48 victory to advance to the semifinals Wednesday at top-seeded Campolindo.
“The first half, our defense was tremendous,” senior Dylan Chung said. “We had to bring that back for the second half.”
Fourth-seeded Dublin, which trailed 29-12 midway through the second quarter, grabbed its first lead when Jalen Stokes scored in the final minute of the third quarter to make it 39-38.
The advantage widened to four early in the fourth.
It didn’t last.
Northgate went ahead for good when Thayne Merrill’s three-point play gave the Broncos a 48-46 lead with 4:21 to go.
Five free throws in the final 1:40 ended Dublin’s hopes of advancing.
“Every great team is going to make their run and be able to get back in the game,” Northgate coach Michael Shaughnessy said. “They did. We had a rough stretch there in the third quarter where we couldn’t put the ball in the basket. We only scored six in that quarter.
“But we talked about it going into the playoffs. You’re going to have to bring toughness. You’re going to have to bring some grit. And you’re going to have to stick together. That’s exactly what we did to close out the game. Clutch plays on the defensive end. Clutch plays on the offensive end. Big free throws to close it out.”
Chung led Northgate with 16 points. Merrill and Brady Cook added 12 points apiece.
Courtney Anderson Jr. finished with 17 points and Donovan Cooks had 12 points for Dublin.
“Credit to them,” Dublin coach Tom Costello said. “They played well. They’re a good team. The ball got a little sticky. We had open looks that normally go down. It wasn’t like we didn’t get looks for the right guy at the right time. They just didn’t go in.”
Asked what hurt his team in the first half, Costello said. “That’s a great question. It was just kind of a lack of energy. It was weird.”
Northgate (20-6) will now get ready for its third game this season against Campolindo, one of its Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division rivals.
Campo won the first game by six points and the second by three.
“We’ll have some time to prepare, going into next week at their place,” Shaughnessy said. “We’ve played those guys though the last two times around. Obviously for the third time around, hopefully, we can get them.”
Because all six NCS Open teams automatically qualify for the Northern California regionals, Dublin’s season is not over.
The Gaels (16-6) will play Granada next week before learning where they will land in the NorCals. Granada lost to Miramonte in an Open Division game Thursday.
“We’ve just got to get better since we’ve got one more tournament,” Costello said. “Luckily we have some time to fix some things. I like our team. For a lot of our guys, it was the first sort of bright-light game. Our program has done well for the last five or six years. But for this particular group, it’s all new to them.”
Photos: Northgate 55, Dublin 48
