Brownell Sweeps South Valley in Jr. High Hoops Clash
Gilroy – When the Brownell and South Valley boys basketball teams get packed into a frenzied gym for their once-a-year battle for Gilroy junior high basketball bragging rights, records tend to mean very little.
“It doesn’t matter what the records are,” said Brownell athletic director Jeff Ross. “Both teams play up to the challenge of the game.”
But this year, Brownell had too many weapons.
In the Friday night showdown at Solarsano, both the seventh and eighth grade Brownell squads pulled off resounding victories, making it four-in-a-row for the Bruins side of the rivalry. Since the rivalry began in 1996, the two teams have split five victories apiece.
“It’s always a good rivalry. They all went to grammar school with each other,” Ross said. “It’s not just bragging rights for the season. They’ll be kidding each other forever.”
Before an energized crowd, the eighth grade Brownell team cruised to a 41-16 win behind 11 points from Logan Sweeney and eight points from Christos Louves. The seventh grade Brownell team was led to a 50-15 win by Chris Cananzano’s 16 points and Marcus Harrell’s 11 assists – a new seventh single-game record for assists.
In the eighth grade matchup, it was all Brownell from the opening tip.
“We put on a half-court press to pressure the ball,” said Brownell eight grade team coach Rudy Gonzales. “We managed to get some easy lay-ups from Greg Hamik.”
Hamik finished with four points.
The Bruins led by 15 at the half. In the second half, they stretched the lead to almost 30 at one point.
Throughout the game, Louves had a dominating presence around the basket.
“He was the one that was mainly doing the scoring and rebounding underneath,” Gonzales said.
In the seventh grade game, Cameron Lauery (6 points), Gavin Menges (4 points), Chris Drysdale (4 points) and Dylon Jensen (4 points) also contributed to the Brownell win.
Although both games were easily won by Brownell, the rivalry hasn’t always swung in the Bruins’ favor. South Valley owns all the wins from 1996 to 2000.
The following year, Brownell’s seventh grade team snapped the Tigers’ streak in dramatic fashion. The Bruins went on a 6-0 run down the stretch before winning the game on a jump shot in the final second of the game.
“South Valley had the game won already,” recalled Ross, who coached the team.
Since then, the game has only grown in popularity. Two years ago, the game was held at Gilroy High.
“We started looking at making this a bigger showing for the community,” Gonzales said.
Friday’s game was held in the Solarsano gym because host Brownell’s own gym is too small for the game.
“The place was rockin’,” Ross said of Friday’s game. The South Valley cheerleaders cheered in the Tigers while the Brownell bear mascot roamed the sidelines.
With the wins, the Brownell eighth grade team improved to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in the Southern Division of the East Valley Athletic League with three games to play, including powerhouse Briton, which the Bruins will face Thursday at home at 4:45pm.
The eighth grade Bruins’ one loss in league game at the hands of Bernal.
“It was one of those that are going to come back to haunt us,” said Gonzales, whose eighth grade teams were league champs in 2003 and 2004 and have made the playoffs every year since 2001. “That’s going to make or break our playoff chances.”
In order to make the playoffs again this year, the Bruins have to finish in the top two of the Southern Division.
The seventh grade Brownell team improved to a perfect 4-0 record in league and will play the other undefeated team in the Southern Division, Davis, today at 3:30pm at home for first place.
After Friday’s loss, South Valley’s eighth graders dropped to 2-3 in league. The seventh grade team sits at 0-4 in league.
