GILROY—While the rain was coming down outside, it was raining baskets inside of Gilroy High.
Oakwood and Christopher went toe-to-toe with each other in an intense contest to open the 35th annual Bob Hagen Memorial Tournament Thursday that ended with the Hawks on top 52-44.
The two teams were tied 40-40 early in the fourth, but Oakwood’s Justin Mortensen helped his team close the door on a Cougar rally. He used his 6-9 frame on both sides of the ball, grabbing rebounds and getting shots off despite heavy coverage. Mortensen accounted for eight of Oakwood’s 12 fourth quarter points and finished a double-double of 21 points and 15 rebounds in addition to seven assists and a blocked shot.
“We decided to go out and show what we’re made of,” Mortensen said. “We knew they were a good team. We knew that if we wanted to compete in this tournament, we had to go out and give it our all.”
Oakwood charged out of the gate in the first quarter and found its rhythm almost immediately. The Hawks displayed excellent ball movement and opened up the floor for five different shooters to score in the quarter. Oakwood’s versatility seemed to throw the Cougars off and it built a 17-10 lead after the first.
Christopher was coming off a big 59-57 win over Gunderson on Wednesday and appeared to be running on fumes to start the game. The Cougars were plagued by 11 first-half fouls—many of which were questionable—and turnovers early on, but quickly turned things around in the second quarter.
“The main thing was just getting up tonight after you let everything out last night—that was my biggest, biggest thing,” Cougar coach Dan Mooney said. “I think we stopped them (in the second quarter), but we couldn’t make anything happen on our end offensively. It wasn’t fluid enough and those are the challenges you face when you learn how to finish.”
The Christopher defense switched from a full to a half court press in the second quarter and effectively shutdown the Hawks, holding them to just five points—all of which were freethrows.
Offensively, the Cougars posted 16 points, including eight from senior forward Dylan Day. Back-to-back baskets from Day tied the game at 18-all midway through the quarter and a basket from Chad Hartman gave them their first lead at 20-18.
“We just wanted to come out and play hard,” said Hartman, who scored 12 points for Christopher. “Guys were setting good screens, we were getting open looks and the shots started to fall in the second.”
Hartman looked to widen the gap heading into halftime, but the speedy and dangerous Youssef Eshra held him at midcourt. Eshra then stole the ball, only to have it go out of bounds as time expired and Oakwood headed to the locker room trailing 26-22.
Adding to Oakwood’s troubles was a slew of unforced turnovers in the first half and at halftime, coach Kort Jensen said he simply asked his team to make better decisions.
“We knew coming in what we wanted to do. We felt like we had a size advantage and we have the quickest kid around at point guard,” Jensen said. “We got ourselves in trouble early: we had too many turnovers. It’s not because anybody forced turnovers, we just made bad choices. Our kids really stayed with it and we got what we wanted.
“The second quarter just didn’t go our way because of turnovers, but never at any time did it feel like no one was not trying. Never did I feel like no one was not giving their best.”
Back-to-back baskets from Mortensen and a 3-pointer from Eshra gave Oakwood a 29-26 lead to open the third quarter. Hartman answered with a 3-pointer of his own just moments later to tie things up at 31-all, but a score from Eshra and a 3-point basket from Nate Schilling helped lift the Hawks to a 40-36 lead heading into the fourth.
Eshra put up 13 points and seven assists for the Hawks, while Schilling added six points and four rebounds. Evan Richards chipped in with five points and Ekenny Ekene came the bench to also score five.
“I thought my guards just picked their spots and when they could shoot and when they could drive; they didn’t force it,” Jensen said. “They would set up their shot or they’d look to throw the ball inside to our post players and they weren’t selfish about it. Nobody was looking to say ‘these are my stats’ and I was really proud of them.”
Oakwood moves on to the semifinals and will play the winner of the Aptos-Seaside game at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Day led Christopher with 18 points in addition to five rebounds, and credited his guards and post, Xander Bowers, for giving him open looks. Bowers added eight points and Alec Cordova chipped in with six.
Christopher will face the loser of the Aptos-Seaside game at 5 p.m. Friday in the consolation semifinals.
“We could’ve won, we just made some mistakes. We got discouraged and missed some shots,” Day said. “We gave up some easy points. We’ve gotta learn from it I guess and I try to get the next one.”
“(We just need to) rest up tonight and forget about this loss,” Hartman added. “We need to come out and play hard tomorrow.”
Gilroy’s game against Trinity Christian was cancelled due to weather. Because of this, Trinity Christian forfeits the tournament opener and will play Anzar in the consolation semifinals at 3:30 p.m. Friday. The Mustangs automatically advance to the semifinals and will play Live Oak at 8 p.m. Friday.
