Lady Mustangs rally late, but fall apart in 54-37 loss to North
Salinas.
SALINAS – The Lady Mustang hoopsters played a game of Jeckle and Hyde in Tuesday’s road game against league-foe North Salinas – resulting in an unfavorable and lopsided 54-37 loss.
“We had it going in the third quarter and I don’t know if we ran out of gas or we ran out of focus. It just stopped,” said first-year head coach Kari Williams following Tuesday’s defeat. “We were on. We were doing it. I don’t even know what happened at the end of the third. In the fourth quarter again, we didn’t get anything done. I don’t even know if we scored in the fourth quarter.”
The Lady Mustangs (3-5 in T-CAL, 14-11 overall) scored eight points in final eight minutes, while the Lady Vikings (6-2 in T-CAL) exploded for an 18-point quarter to end any kind of Gilroy threat.
“We had it down to 35-29 at one point in the third quarter. We came down three times in a row and didn’t score, didn’t execute. That’s the difference,” Williams said. “When you play a team at home, especially in this league, you have to be 10 points better than them to beat them. We didn’t get a call to go our way. The refs definitely let them play rough and aggressive, and we didn’t step up to the challenge.”
Even without the services of inspirational senior Jenn Olvera, the Lady Mustangs hung around against North Salinas. Trailing by 13 at the break, Gilroy went on an 11-4 run to cut the gap to 35-29 with 3:47 left in the third quarter. Senior guard Laura Hennessee (team-high 11 points) capped off the surge with a three-pointer from way out – forcing a North Salinas time-out.
But when they returned from their huddle, the Lady Mustangs changed from a team that could do no wrong to a team that did everything wrong. Gilroy turned the ball over several times and did not score for the rest of the third quarter.
“We talk about bounce passes left and right, and yet we turned around and did things that we were making mistakes on early in the season,” Williams said. “That’s how we lost to Salinas. It was so similar of a game. Poor decision making.”
The Lady Mustangs continued to struggle in the fourth quarter, while the Lady Vikings caught fire once again – draining treys, blocking shots, and running the floor for easy lay-ins.
“They were dropping threes and they had a couple of rejections down here and their crowd got into it, and it definitely played a toll on the girls,” said Williams, whose squad suffered its second straight double-digit loss, starting with last week’s lopsided defeat at the hands of first-place Notre Dame.
Gilroy, however, did find out what its sophomores are made of as reserve forwards Michelle DiFiore and Antionette Bowe played strong in place of the missing Olvera.
“Michelle did a great job coming in starting in Jenn’s place. In the third quarter, I told them to go in there and not stop until they got the ball and Michelle was all over the place. She stole the ball. She was aggressive. She did a great job,” Williams said. “Antionette same thing – get a rebound. She fought until that ball got ripped away from her, but she went after every single one. She did a great job.”
But the Lady Mustangs missed Olvera’s presence.
“Jenn Olvera’s gone and she’s a big force out there. She doesn’t score all the points for us, but she gets the boards and does a lot of things we need to have done,” Williams said. “Her heart, she’s the one who when we get down or when things aren’t going right she’s the one who gets fired up, and we missed that tonight a lot.”
Sophomore guard Shante Mancera also saw only limited action in her return from a knee injury. Mancera drained a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach.
“We were short,” Williams said. “Shante is just coming off her knee injury so she wasn’t able to help us out there.”
Foul trouble also plagued junior center Sarah Hoeft – who finished with nine points despite sitting with three fouls in the first half and eventually fouling out in the fourth.
“That always hurts us when it happens, but Hoefy has to pick up a lot of other people’s fouls. When they get beat, she’s last man standing,” Williams said. “Two of her fouls tonight she had to pick up because her teammates got beat and that’s all we can ask her to do. Unfortunately, that didn’t get her in the offensive game.”
The Lady Mustangs look to recapture their ‘A’ game in a Feb. 20 home finale against neighboring rival Live Oak – which Gilroy dominated throughout the first meeting in Morgan Hill.
“We’re going to go in there and it’s some of our seniors last game as far as league goes and all of those players are going to be excited to come in and finish up on our home court,” said Williams, whose squad is headed into the CCS Playoffs. “It’s going to be a good game for us to get back to scoring and knowing how to score and watching the basket go in. That’s going to prep us for next week.”
