Lady Mustang hoopsters at their best in 70-25 shellacking of
North Salinas
GILROY – The Lady Mustang hoopsters finally showed up and, in doing so, waxed league-foe North Salinas by a 70-25 margin in Tuesday’s final home game.
“We finally showed up and stayed with it throughout the whole game instead of two quarters. We looked really good,” sophomore guard Marissa Nowakowski said. “I love playing like that. That’s the way we should have been playing all year and I’m so glad we played against them that way.”
Coach Kari Williams wasn’t surprised by her team’s season-high 70-point performance, because that is what she expected from her young ball club from the beginning of the season.
“It was hard to tell. It was the team I kept telling you about right there in the flesh,” said Williams, who had hoped the Lady Mustangs would be fighting for a league title rather than their playoff lives. “I thought this would have been a regular night for us – maybe not against Notre Dame, but certainly against other teams.”
Gilroy (10-15 overall, 2-7 in T-CAL) took it to North Salinas (12-11, 4-5), a team headed to the post-season that was also coming off an impressive 54-44 victory over Hollister (18-7, 5-3), another team bound for the playoffs.
“I had 11 people who got in and played basketball. I had 11 people score, I’m not sure, but definitely everybody was getting shots,” Williams said. “We passed the ball. We broke their press. They couldn’t press. We pressed. We did everything we’re supposed to do.”
But it could be too little too late for the Lady Mustangs, who are hoping to finish off with a victory over Live Oak on Thursday and then possibly receive an at-large bid from the section committee.
“It’s bittersweet. It’s tough that we don’t qualify on our own .500 for CCS, but I think the important thing was that we didn’t lay down and say, ‘OK, that’s not going to happen so what do we care about,'” Williams said. “They played really hard against Notre Dame and played a good game, and they played really hard tonight. When things are going well for you and you are making your shots, then you don’t have to worry about whether you are making your free throws.”
Free throws have plagued the Lady Mustangs this season in tight games, but the hosts were up 34-16 at halftime and, instead of letting the Lady Vikings back into the game in the second half, extended their lead with each second that came off the clock.
“It makes us feel good. It makes us feel like we should be feeling all year. We’re really good. We just finally showed up,” Nowakowski said. “We were a lot more calm. We didn’t really rush it and we didn’t let the press get to us, so we finally settled down and realized that we can do it without running back and forth constantly.”
Another nemesis for Gilroy has been beating the press, and going up against a North Salinas team that relies on its press would have posed a major problem on any other night.
But not last night.
“Our passing was outstanding. I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but this was by far the best we’ve executed breaking a press, taking our time, not getting flustered,” Williams said. “They did everything that I asked them. I was very, very happy with that.”
Every Lady Mustang got into the game and all but one got in the score column. Sophomore forward Catherine Hussey finished with a team-high 14 points, matching her jersey number, while sophomore guard Kristen Campos netted 11 points and senior center Sarah Hoeft added 10 points.
Junior forward Amanda Link tallied eight points, while junior forward Kendall Costa registered five points. Junior guard Shante Mancera and Nowakowski scored six points apiece. Senior center Antoinette Okere and senior guard Laila Correa added four points each, and junior forward Michelle DiFiore hit one basket. Junior guard Amy Trujillo, who was out for most of the season due to injury, did get off Gilroy’s final shot, but it did not fall for her.
“This was really, really a great performance for us. It was everything I could have wanted from each of the players,” Williams said. “My defensive players were playing great defense. My offensive players were playing great offense. We shot the ball. We rebounded and put it back up. We had everybody doing layups. It was awesome.”
As good a night as it was for Gilroy was as poor shooting a night it was for North Salinas, a solid outside shooting unit that could not buy a basket in the second half.
“Basically they kind of live and die by the outside game because they are littler than us and they didn’t hit their shots, and we were getting rebounds and putting it away,” said Williams, whose squad lost by four points in North Salinas in the first meeting. “I think our conditioning helped out tonight. We were moving the ball at will.”
With their fate resting on the playoff selection committee, all the Lady Mustangs can do is win big against Live Oak on Thursday and let the cards fall as they may.
“I’d stick with (scoring) 70, but I’d like to see everybody play well,” Williams said. “That’s important for me.”
Both the freshmen and junior varsity squads defeated North Salinas earlier in the night for a triple-threat sweep.
