Lady Mustang hoopsters eye upset of top seed Mitty in CCS
Semifinals tonight at 6
GILROY – The encouraging news is the Lady Mustangs are playing some of their best basketball of the season in the midst of a three-game winning streak – including two impressive playoff wins over Mount Pleasant and Fremont.
The troubling news is Gilroy’s up against perennial power Archbishop Mitty (27-2) – the top seeded team in Division I that dismantled No. 8 Milpitas 74-18 in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“We’re peaking at the right time,” said head coach Kari Williams, whose squad will tip-off with Mitty at 6 p.m. inside the Leland High gymnasium. “Everyone is playing really well. They’re all peaking. (Sarah) Miller, Jenn Olvera have both been outstanding and, of course, Laura Hennessee is doing a great job.
“Danell Dow was hitting her shots. She hit two three-pointers (against Fremont) in the first quarter. They didn’t know who to guard,” the first-year coach added.
But the question remains, is it enough? Does Gilroy have the firepower to hang with the private powerhouse?
“I told the girls we can’t win unless we believe we can first. Even if it is only the 14 of us that believe, that’s all we need to make it happen,” Williams said. “Otherwise, we shouldn’t even waste the gas to go there.”
The availability of junior center Sarah Hoeft is being called a game-time decision. Two minutes into the third quarter of Saturday’s win over Fremont, Hoeft chased down a long pass from teammate Danell Dow. As she reached for it, she got her feet tangled, and slammed head first into an unpadded wall at Leland High. She was put in a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
“I don’t even remember hitting the wall. All I remember is saving the ball and waking up in the hospital,” said Hoeft at Monday’s practice. “I’ll only go in if she really needs me.”
Hoeft had a big bump on the left side of her head and bruised ribs as well as a sore right wrist, sore left shoulder, and sore back.
“I get light-headed and dizzy once in a while,” said Hoeft, who did shoot around on her own Sunday and at practice Monday. “I think we can do it.”
If No. 4 Gilroy (18-11) is to pull off the upset, the garlic girls will need their best game of the year.
“We have to play good defense. We have to slow it down and make them run their offense,” Williams said. “When you score 80 points in a game, you get a lot of lay-ups. We have to make them work for their points rather than give up lay-ups. We have to play tough defense.”
Coach Williams turned to the two solid quarters the Lady Mustangs played against T-CAL Champ Notre Dame-Salinas during the regular season for encouragement. But Gilroy ended up losing that game, 69-46.
“They’re good. They’re pretty tall. They have 14 girls on the team that I counted. They have a lot of depth. They’re all good basketball players,” said Williams, who stuck around to watch the first half of Mitty’s win over Milpitas. “There’s a reason why their playing for a CCS Championships every year and why they are the top seed every year.
“We have to keep changing the tempo. We have to go real slow and then speed it up,” the coach added. “We have to get them out of their game.”
Once again, game-time is 6 p.m. The second game between Piedmont Hills and Salinas is scheduled for 8 p.m.
