BRENTWOOD, CALIFORNIA — The fact Dublin High School’s boys basketball team ended Liberty’s season in 2023-24 should have put the Gaels at a disadvantage in Thursday’s first-round North Coast Section Open Division game.

It didn’t.

It simply didn’t matter.

Even after a long stressful drive East to Brentwood during commute hours.

Blessed with loads of talent, but more so a unanimously agreed confluence of chemistry, the Gaels fought off an early surge by the host team to post a thorough 65-47 victory.

A balanced scoring attack led by versatile 6-foot-2 junior guard Jaiden Jones (18 points) and the power play down low by 6-7, 220-pound junior Cameron Jones, the Gaels (24-5) advanced to the semifinals Wednesday to face top seed De La Salle-Concord, a team its lost two twice this season, 53-49 and 54-41, the latter just last week in the East Bay Athletic League finals.

“I’m ready to play them again,” Jones said. “We got to get them this time, but we will come for them. We’re going to game plan, reajust and get ready. You got to go out and conquer.”

That was sorta of the plan for Liberty, a newbie to the Open Division, the highest quality teams of the seven-division NCS format. Dublin is a regular to the elite division and didn’t panice after falling behind 23-17 early in the second quarter following a 9-0 run by the Lions, who got 18 points from high-flying 6-3 senior Andrew Vixon.

The Lions simply punched back with 14-2 run to close the half. Everyone got in the acti, including 6-3 senior guard Ramir Raymore and 5-11 senior Jordan Morganstein, who opened the rally with back-to-back 3-pointers.

Milard Pollard (14 points) hit a jumper and a three-pointer after Ramir Raymore tallied a deuce for the Lions, Anderson finished off the half with two free throws and a power deuce in the lane.

Raymore was the fourth and final Dublin player to finish in double figures with 12, but Morganstein contributed all around even though his 3 was the only points he scored on the night.

Dublin largely did it on the defensive end, limiting the Lions to just five points in the fourth quarter to turn this into a rout.

“Kind of felt like everyone played a big role tonight,” Jones said. “Our team chemistry is so great. We’ve played with each other for so long, just coming together and believing in each other and just cooperating with one another makes a huge difference.”

Vixon, one of just three seniors on the Lions, said he thought the Lions came in a. little nervous. It showed particularly on their perimeter shooting, a place of strength. On Thursday, Liberty made just four three-pointers in 23 attempts.

“We have a lot of young guys,” Vixon said. “We came in a little tense. But we’ll come back strong next game.”

The good news for all six teams selected to the Open Division, all will advance to the CIF Northern Region championships in two weeks. All teams in the Open also are guaranteed a losers’ bracket game to sharpen up for regionals.

Dublin, which opened the season 12-0, responded to every Liberty push and there were several.

“These guys are an absolutely pleasure to coach,” Costello said. “We are who we are. We’re not going to promote some magic prepartion. I thought our defense was exceptional tonight, we had a lot of guys step up. It was a very good win against a very good opponent.”

The next one will be even better. The Spartans are playing their best ball of the season with three decisive wins last week en route to the EBAL playoff championship, finished off with a textbook 74-44 victory over Dougherty Valley, which subsequently was knocked dow by the MaxPreps computer to play in the Division i tournament.

Jones or the Gaels couldn’t be bothered with all that. They have the monumental task of slaying the Spartans on Concord in six days. That’s a lot of layoff for both teams — De La Salle will have 10 days off.

“The first time out, we could make shots and with this team, when we hit shots, we are unbeatable,” Jones said. “The second time. We just wern’t getting on the glass. We learned from our two mistakes. We’re gonna keep going and hopefully win this game.”

Jones, who scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half when the Gaels needed it most, caught his hopeful statement and turned it another direction.

“Actually, not hopefully, we are going to win this game.”

When told of Jones’ promise, Costello cringed and worried about the bulletin board material it would create.

But he also told a couple of stories about Jones and his upstanding character, not to mention his unique athleticism. Combine him with the rest of the group and it’s easy to understand why they’ve won 24 games, been right there in tight losses to high-caliber teams and why Costello has a bounce in his step, enjoying every moment with this team.

Perhaps it will take a bold statement to manifest a victory over the seemingly invincible Spartans, albeit surely a rusty Spartan squad.

“We have some time to get ready,” Jones said.

When the host Wolves (20-8) get it going, they are perhaps the most dangerous team in the NorCal Open. They sure showed that potential Thursday, getting 21 points from Irvine-bound Luke Isaak, 11 points and nine assists from point guard Mason Thomas, 10 points by Thomas Conley and nine points and nine rebounds from Elliott Conley. (All numbers supplied by Ethan Kassel).

California (23-6) got 12 points from Emeka Ifediora and eight points by Dane Wallace. The Grizzlies will play Liberty in a consolation game on Wednesday.

San Ramon Valley plays Salesian 7 p.m. Wednesday in a semifinal matchup.