It was a little bit of sloppy and a whole lot of physical.
But in the end, it was still an 18-point victory for the GHS
girls’ basketball team.
It was a little bit of sloppy and a whole lot of physical.
But in the end, it was still an 18-point victory for the GHS girls’ basketball team.
In Thursday’s opening round of the 20th annual Mustang Classic, Gilroy nearly squandered all of its 17-point lead to Gunderson, but then turned it on late in the third quarter and cruised to a 55-37 victory.
Seniors Kristen Campos (15 pts.) and Amanda Link (12 pts.) led the Mustangs in scoring, while posts Jessica Groppe (8 reb.) and McKenna Logan (6 reb.) controlled the boards.
Gilroy (2-0) won despite turning it over 17 times – a dozen of those coming in the second half.
“It felt like a hundred,” GHS head coach Kari Williams.
“It was very sloppy,” she added, “but in the end, it’s still a win. It’s just the second game of the season … I have to remember that.”
It’s also worth remembering that Gunderson answered Gilroy’s 17 turnovers with 26 of its own – nine in the second quarter alone.
At the end of the first quarter, the Mustangs were leading 13-2 and GHS center Amanda Link was outscoring the Grizzlies by an 8-2 margin.
The Gilroy lead increased to 22-5 before Gunderson slowly started to claw back in it, going on a 12-3 run to close out the half.
Using the press effectively, the Grizzlies whittled the lead all the way down to five midway through the third quarter. And that’s when the Mustangs turned it back on.
Sparked by a pair of Campos’ three-pointers, Gilroy went on a 9-0 run and held Gunderson without a field goal until a few minutes into the fourth quarter. By that time, the lead was safely back to 16.
“We got pumped up in the second half,” said Campos, who hit three treys on the night. “We knew we had to pick up the intensity.”
On the whole, intensity wasn’t much of a problem in this game. Fans on both sides of the court bantered back and forth with each other and the game turned quite physical from the outset.
“They were really aggressive,” said Groppe, who pulled down six rebounds in the second half. “So we had to come out and be just as aggressive, if not more.”
Gunderson committed 14 fouls, while Gilroy, not an overly physical team, was whistled for 20. In a scary moment toward the end of the third quarter, GHS guard Marissa Nowakowski was accidentally tripped up and landed awkwardly on the right shoulder she had offseason surgery on.
The game was delayed around 10 minutes to tend to the injury, while Williams argued with the refs about the no-foul call.
“It was a really physical game and I thought it really escalated and got a little out-of-hand,” Williams said. “We’ll leave it at that.”
In the end, the Mustangs left with a comfortable victory.
Gilroy now moves on to the semifinals, where it’ll face Watsonville tonight at 8. The Wildcatz opened the tournament with a 31-24 win over North Monterey County.
