The annual Bob Hagen Tournament featured strong play from local teams, with an all South County consolation finals and Christopher capturing the tournament championship over North Monterey County.
Christopher was the only local team out of Gilroy, Live Oak, Sobrato and Oakwood to survive the first day of play.
The finals on both sides of the bracket turned into exciting affairs as Sobrato edged out Gilroy on a last minute drive and Christopher won by a single points against NMC.
The Cougars actually trailed going into the fourth quarter against the Eagles, after giving up an early first quarter lead.
CHS trailed 25-23 at the half and 39-36 after three quarters of play.
But thanks to an 18-point fourth, Christopher pulled out the dramatic win in what could be a precursor to things to come in the Gabilan Division.
Earlier in the day, Gilroy narrowly lost to Sobrato in the consolation finals, after the Bulldogs broke a late tie thanks to a drawn up play in the final seconds of the contest.
Michael Kropff led the Mustangs with 18 points, followed by Alex Benavides with 13, Connor Doyal with 11 and Jon-Jon Castro with 10.
The Bulldogs led 13-11 after the first quarter, but Gilroy put a 20-spot in the second quarter to go into the break lead 31-28.
The game continued to go back and forth, as Sobrato slightly closed the gap to two points at 52-50 after the third quarter.
Then in the fourth, Sobrato found a rhythm and hung on.
The Bulldogs in the final seconds and the game tied, drew up an in-bounds play and hit a bucket to break a tie and hung on for the 66-64 win.
Gilroy will now move on to play Live Oak in a Quad Match contest on Friday starting at 8 p.m.
Christopher vs Soledad
Xander Bowers was three blocks shy of a triple-double, putting up 16 points with 13 rebounds in Christopher’s 56-43 win.
Alec Cordova followed with 16 points of his own as the Cougars rode high-pressure defense and opportunistic offense to improve to 4-1 overall.
“This early in the season, you’ve got to look this time last year, we weren’t playing the championship game, we were playing in the consolation game,” said Christopher coach Don Mooney. “I’m happy. I’ve got some young boys who are coming. They’re making mistakes now, but they’re not going to make mistakes later. I didn’t have that resource (last year).”
David Medeiros had 17 for Soledad, draining five 3s. No one else for the Aztecs had more than seven points.
The Cougars jumped out early, going on an 11-2 scoring run to take a 17-8 lead when Soledad called a timeout.
The Aztecs came out on a 7-2 run to close out the first quarter trailing Christopher 19-15.
Soledad came to within two to start the second quarter, but a quick run from the Cougars put the game at a 10-point margin and the Aztecs
never recovered.
Soledad was held to six points in the second quarter and Christopher took an 11-point halftime lead.
Out of the break, Christopher kept its pace going, forcing Soledad into six turnovers to take a 44-31 lead after
three quarters.
The Cougars put things away in the fourth, jumping up to a 16-point lead at one point, despite turning the ball over 10 times.
Christopher never dropped a quarter against Soledad and held the Aztecs to six points in the second quarter.
“Coaches are telling me, ‘man, Mooney, you don’t look like you’re in preseason,’” Mooney said. “I said, ‘these boys are ready to play.”
David Medeiros kept the Aztecs around, putting up 17 points for the game, including hitting three second half 3s.
Gilroy vs Live Oak
Live Oak’s Mike Togliatti got his team rolling against Gilroy, scoring 13 in the 13-point loss on Dec. 11.
Gilroy had strong days out of Kropff and Doyal, who scored 18 and 17
points, respectively.
Coach Abrem Estroga heaped praise on his boys for responding after an 84-51 loss to Soledad the night before and turning around to defeat Live Oak.
“We’ve had enough quarters where we saw what happens when we have negative possessions,” Estroga said. “We were able to string some good possessions. Our guys after a late 8-o’clock loss and play a 3:30 game, that’s hard. So I’m proud of them and they responded well.”
Doyal got things rolling with eight points in the first, including a pair of 3s. With Kropff adding seven, Gilroy jumped out to an 18-4 lead.
The Acorns were trailing 36-14 at the half when Live Oak went on a run to push the deficit below 20 points.
Although Gilroy never was in danger of giving up the lead in the game, Live Oak still battled to push as close as 10 late in the quarter before the Mustangs put the game away.
