GILROY—Being down a key player didn’t stop the Gilroy girls basketball team from opening the Mustang Classic Tournament with a bang.
The Mustangs cruised past Harbor 47-17 Thursday at the Bob Hagen Gym to advance to the tournament semifinals.
Maddy Cox and Adina Valencia were crucial to the team’s success, both posting double-digit points. Valencia had a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as well as four steals and three assists. Cox led the team with 13 points in addition to eight rebounds and two assists.
“I think we pushed the offense around and played good defense,” Valencia said. “We didn’t force anything and we just paced ourselves the whole way through.”
Gilroy was without Nia Pollard, who was unable to play due to team policy reasons, but the team lifted itself up to compensate for her absence. She did, however, make her presence known from the stands, cheering the Mustangs on the entire game. Pollard will return to action for tonight’s contest.
Gilroy displayed excellent defensive pressure on the Pirates. It didn’t allow a single point in the fourth quarter and held Harbor to single digits in the previous three frames. Desiree Cundiff was stellar on that side of the ball and finished with three steals and three rebounds as well as two points. Andrea Gracia scored six points for Gilroy, in addition to her five rebounds and two steals.
The Mustangs’ bench helped boost the offense, too. Sarah Weiby entered the game in the fourth quarter and quickly made an impact. She added four points as well as two assists and a rebound.
“I felt like it was nice to get some of our players off the bench and into the game,” Mustangs coach Mitchell Pierce said. “They got some playing time and they were able to get up and down the floor and find a rhythm. We haven’t had a lot of games where we’ve been able to do that. It was nice to get the bench involved tonight and I felt like the starters did their job. We have to work on getting our lay-ups and easy baskets. I felt like we got good shots all night.”
Gilroy charged out of the gate and scored 12 unanswered points in the first quarter. Harbor’s first point didn’t come until midway through the quarter when found itself at the freethrow line. Taylin Aasen hit a 3-pointer and Lupe Coss-Ruiz added a field goal to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 12-6 after the first.
The second quarter wasn’t as pretty for the Mustangs, who appeared to be rushing plays with little success. They were able to settle down and outscored the Pirates 8-6 to take a 20-12 lead at the half.
“(At halftime) we talked about running plays because the whole game we weren’t really running our plays,” Cox said. “We were like ‘OK, we just need to slow down and get comfortable and set-up the offense’.”
The talk was successful as the Mustangs posted 18 points in the third quarter, led by Cox who scored nine.
Gilroy (2-0) will take on Notre Dame in the semifinals of the Mustang Classic at 8 p.m. tonight at home.
“They’re a good team. I think we’re going to need to press on them on defense,” Cox said of the Spirits. “They have some good shooters, so we’re going to be up on them.”
“We’re definitely going to have to play harder than we did Harbor, but we’ve played Notre Dame previously,” Valencia added. “I’m feeling confident about playing as a team tomorrow.”
