GILROY—Gilroy and Notre Dame went basket-for-basket with each other all night—until the Mustangs silenced the Spirits in the fourth quarter.
Gilroy held its opponent to eight points in the final frame en route to scoring 20 of its own to win 53-40 Friday in the semifinal of the Mustang Classic Tournament. The win secured the Mustangs’ spot in the championship where they will face Gunderson at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The Spirits’ Kyleigh White found the basket as time expired in the third quarter to get her team within a point, trailing 33-32. The Mustangs charged into action to gain a 7-point lead, 43-36, thanks to field goals from Sarah Weiby and Maddy Cox as well as two freethrows from Nia Pollard.
Gilroy’s defense held Notre Dame to freethrows—not allowing a field goal—until the final 15 seconds of the game.
“I think they were just more disciplined,” Gilroy coach Mitchell Pierce said. “When we got all on the same page, they were able to work together and play solid defense.”
“Hats off to Notre Dame. They’ve got great shooters and we were concerned about them all night,” he continued. “You give them an inch and they will light it up. We just tried to apply pressure and play solid defense; I think the girls did that.”
Adina Valencia was a force on defense, racking up nine rebounds and two steals. She also added 10 points offensively, including two 3-pointers. Jackie Morales was also stellar on defense, successfully completing her assignment of guarding Notre Dame’s most dangerous shooters: Sarah Muzik and Marisa Given who scored eight and 14 points, respectively.
“We worked very hard. It was my first time coming back in a week, so he (Pierce) had me go on the toughest player, which was challenging but I felt good about it,” Morales said. “We had to get on them because we didn’t want them to shoot anymore. We were just trying to get on them as much as we possibly could.”
It was Pollard’s first game back, too, and she held nothing back. The junior guard posted an impressive 24 points—including nine from her three 3-pointers. She also had seven rebounds.
“We knew that we had to push the ball hard because we knew that Notre Dame is a big competitor that we had,” Pollard said. “Our motto was to keep pushing the ball because that’s probably the only way we could get down the court. Our motto is just to keep going and going until we couldn’t anymore.”
Notre Dame used its size on the boards to gain extra opportunities on offense in the third. The Spirits overcame a seven-point deficit to take their second lead of the game and jump ahead 30-29. Freethrows from Cox and a field goal from Pollard put Gilroy up 33-30, but White’s shot put the game within a point.
It was a similar situation in the first half, when Notre Dame held an 8-5 lead only to see Gilroy come back with a vengeance.
Back-to-back scores from Pollard—including a 3-point basket—helped Gilroy score 12 unanswered points to lead 17-8 in the second and 21-17 at the half.
“I think we always want to run—that’s just our team. We’re a smaller team, so we’re going to run, but at the same time we’re going to set things up and run our half court,” Pierce said. “I thought we did a decent job today, I thought we adjusted well and we had some new pieces that contributed. That really helped us out, gave us a little more girth inside. Overall I’m happy.”
Gilroy is set for its Mustang Classic Tournament Championship game against the Grizzles. Defense will be key for the Mustangs in guarding an aggressive Gunderson team.
“We just have to stick to what we know, what we do and what we’re built for,” Pierce said. “We’re just going to go with that and see how it works with them. If it doesn’t, we’re going to have to try to make some game time adjustments to try to be successful.”
