Mustangs come from behind several times to threaten in 69-63
home loss to showboat Salinas.
GILROY – The Gilroy High boys basketball team put on its best showing of the Bill Murray blockbuster hit ‘Groundhog’s Day’ as the Mustangs repeatedly dug themselves in and out of the same hole Saturday before finally succumbing to Salinas, 69-63.
“It ended up being the fourth quarter that just drained us,” said head coach Michael Baumgartner, following his squad’s wacky home loss. “You’d think if you play well in the third quarter like we did, it would carry over. It just didn’t. We start over again. I feel like Ground Hog Day.”
The Mustangs immediately fell behind by 12 in the opening two minutes and trailed 17-9 at the end of the first quarter. But Gilroy cut the gap to two with four minutes to go in the second quarter – only to walk into the locker room at the break down by 11.
“We worked real hard to come back. We started out slow and got behind by about 12 points,” senior Josh Gravell said. “We kept fighting and we got back and you just do something stupid and you let it go again. We couldn’t put it together.”
In the third quarter, Gilroy again stared into a 14-point deficit and rallied back to come within five heading into the fourth quarter. What was trimmed to a three-point deficit quickly turned into a 10-point hole with 6:32 remaining. Then, the Mustangs crept back – cutting the gap to four with 4:53 left – and once again faded away – falling behind by 15 with just under three minutes to go. A late Gilroy rally made it a six-point ball-game with 30 ticks, but Salinas held on in the end.
“If we could have put together one good quarter, I think it would have been a lot different story,” said Gravell, who finished up with nine points off the bench. “I thought we played pretty good. That’s a good team.”
The end result lifted Salinas’ record to 13-5, while Gilroy’s season-mark dropped to 6-9 with a Jan. 22 home game against Hollister due up next at 7 p.m.
“It comes down to intensity level. That’s what I just talked with them for 10 minutes. We don’t have it,” said head coach Michael Baumgartner, frustrated with the unfavorable outcome. “And then there’s times where they show it, spurts of it, but they can’t sustain it. It’s just very frustrating to see that because I know what they can do. I know what this team is capable of doing. They just have to sustain it for four quarters.”
While Salinas razzled and dazzled with some flashy passing and uncontested lay-ins, Gilroy tried to stay disciplined – working methodically up and down the court for a chance to surge back into contention.
“I just told them we’re not going to get it back all in one shot. We’ve got to chip away at it, chip away at it, and we started to do it,” said Baumgartner of the early 12-point deficit. “And in the third quarter, we did it as well.”
Down by 14 with 4:40 left in the third quarter, the Mustangs received baskets from a slew of shooters – first a jumper by senior guard Brandt Chacon (team-high 13 points), second a soft hook via senior center Kyle Loving (six points, four steals), then a sweeping drive from Gravell and finally a putback by senior forward Erik Tollison (12 points, seven rebounds). With the gap trimmed to eight, Gravell drained a three-pointer to give Gilroy the momentum going into the final period.
“That helped. That helped big-time,” Baumgartner said. “(Gravell) is starting to prove in practice that he wants playing time and he knows that this team needs a spark like that and he’s taken it upon himself to do it. I want to see that from everybody else now.”
The momentum carried over only long enough for Chacon to sink a jumper in the paint to make it a three-point spread. Salinas – led by reigning league MVP Drew Sanchez – immediately extended back to a 10-point advantage with still 6:32 remaining. Even a pair of late treys via Chacon could not bring the Mustangs back in time.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t happen until the end of the game when everybody decided to be a threat,” Baumgartner said. “If we have that for four quarters, that’s hard to stop. For some odd reason, they’re so timid early on.”
Sophomore Vince Mitre netted seven on his 10 points in the first half, while senior teammate Tucker Baksa scored all seven of his points in the second half.
