Nelson nets eight points in Rams’ 82-77 home loss at Gavilan
GILROY – Gavilan fans were treated to a dunking clinic Thursday night, but no one was clapping.
Gavilan was ahead most of the night against visiting Skyline, but lost 82-77 in overtime.
“It is tough because I think we should have won that game,” said Gavilan coach Chris Shoemaker. “But at the same time, it is encouraging because it has been a long time around here since we have had a game we can say we should have won.”
Both teams are currently 1-7. Skyline had players on its team from all over the country and had its own skyline of players like 6-8 Sal Vance, who had 15 points including nine in the overtime session.
Even with the height disadvantage, the Rams were consistently hitting the back-door shots.
“In the first half we really worked hard to execute on both sides of the floor,” said Gilroy grad Erik Nelson, who scored all eight of his points in the second half and in overtime. “In the second half, we got a little more stagnant on offense.”
Nelson had a couple good looks late in the game but couldn’t get them to fall.
“I wish I could have hit a couple more,” Nelson said. “When I was on the bench, coach said that I needed to hit some big shots to win the game. I am going to keep shooting, and they will start falling.”
Another guy who came up big for the Rams was former Haybaler Tommy Sondgroth, who led all scorers with 20 points. He had a couple threes in the second half that helped the Rams build a lead.
“We expected that,” said Skyline coach Tony Raffetto. “They got a good core group. They execute and they make their shots. They were one or two possessions from winning. They did a great job off dribble penetration and spotting up the open man.”
Neither team was able to get a foot in the door for the opening ten minutes of the game. And neither team could get more than a two-point lead.
Every time the Spartans would score to go up a basket, the Rams answered right back.
With 11:10 left in the first half, Mike Fugate found Jimmy Cheatum on the back door, and a minute later, Fugate was the recipient of a nice feed by Tim Goode to give the Rams a 16-12 lead and force a Skyline timeout.
But Sondgroth had a give-and-go basket, and Lionel Smith hit a nice little turn-around jumper to give the Rams their largest lead of the first half at 20-12 with 7:10 to go. At the half the Rams led 32-28.
“It is something that we have worked on against some of the teams that are athletic who try to pressure,” said Shoemaker about the quick back-door passes. “It is kind of our last line of defense. It is effective in demoralizing other teams. It is kind of our answer to the dunk.”
Although Gavilan does have a couple guys that can put the ball down, there is not really anyone on the team who can do it during the game.
Smith took a couple of the five charges called against Skyline in the game.
“We do that every game,” Raffetto said. “We have to learn to jump stop.”
In the second half, the Rams built up a 10-point lead at 38-28 after Goode hit a pair of free throws in the first five minutes.
Skyline moved within two points after a dunk, but a technical foul for slapping the backboard was called. Sondgroth hit both free throws to Gavilan a 40-36 edge.
Reggie McCuller, who led Skyline with 17 points, hit one of his three treys in the second half to tie the game at 47 with a 9:48 to go.
Gavilan held a 59-51 lead with six minutes to go and a 61-57 lead with under four minutes remaining, but then the Rams started to fall apart under the pressure. Instead of playing a controlled game, they got a little hasty and started turning the ball over, not using the clock to their advantage.
“We had three possessions in a row against the 1-3-1 trap that we either took hurried shots or turned it over,” Shoemaker said.
The Trojans came back to tie the score at 64 and had a last-second basket that was not allowed to send the game to overtime.
“In the second half. there were probably six or eight times we needed to make plays and we didn’t – blocking out, making a free throw, hitting an open shot or finding a man instead of turning it over,” Shoemaker said. “At halftime, we wanted to pack the zone in and make them shoot from the outside. But unfortunately we weren’t able to do that down the stretch.”
The Rams will play at San Francisco City College on Dec. 17 and will next play at home Dec. 23 against De Anza.
“We will be playing against bigger people all year, and we just have to learn how to compete,” Shoemaker said. “We got a little worn out – good athletes will do that to you.”
