GILROY—For one night only, a select group of South Valley basketball players took the floor against a team of champions.
The Gilroy All-Stars—made mostly of Mustang alumni—hosted the Chinese Basketball Association champion Beijing Ducks in an exhibition game Aug. 19 at Gilroy High. The Ducks ended up winning 81-71, but the score didn’t diminish the experience.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity; this is their Team USA moment,” Gilroy boys basketball coach and co-organizer of the event Abrem Estorga said. “They get to represent not only the city of Gilroy, but the entire country.”
Estorga and Jeremy Dirks—a GHS alum and Vice Principal of San Benito High—put the game together in just 10 days. They were contacted by former GHS coach and Gilroy resident Tracy Carpenter who has also coached in China. His agent manages the Ducks who have been practicing at the University of San Francisco this summer and were seeking some competition in the Bay Area.
With such a tight deadline, the All-Stars were only able to get in one open gym practice before the game and half of the players weren’t even there. The lack of cohesiveness showed in the first half and the All-Stars found themselves trailing by 25 points, 53-28, at the break.
The second half, however, looked like a completely different game.
Gilroy outscored Beijing 22-15 in the third. Mustang alum Jason Conrad had the crowd going wild as he showed off his dunking skills not once, but twice in the quarter. The All-Stars cut the Ducks’ lead to 68-50 heading into the fourth.
“This is probably better than we thought we were going to do,” Conrad said. “It was a lot of fun. We put it together and luckily we meshed really well.”
Conrad played for ZZ Leiden of the Dutch Basketball League last year and will join the Moncton Miracles in the National Basketball League of Canada this summer. His time overseas led him to cross paths with some of the Ducks players, but he said he never would’ve imagined playing against them at his alma mater.
“I actually played in China last summer and played against a couple of these guys,” Conrad said. “It was good to get to play against them again.”
Gilroy maintained its momentum in the final frame, outscoring Beijing 21-13. Raymond Cowels III, who also plays in the Dutch Basketball League, led the way with 12 points including three 3-pointers. His final shot from downtown got the All-Stars to within five points to trail 76-71. That’s all Gilroy would be able to muster up, however, as Beijing found itself at the freethrow line four times as the clock wound down.
“We came out a little lazy in the first half—I think we were just still getting warm,” Cowels said. “We decided we gotta show up for America and not let them blow us out. We decided to turn it on and see what happens and make a game out of it.”
Cowels scored 17 points in the game, second only Tyree McCrary—an Oak Grove High alum—who led the team with 22 points. Conrad added 16 points for Gilroy.
All proceeds from the game benefit the Mustangs boys basketball players, many of whom were in attendance for the game. Having spent a decade of his career with Gilroy, Carpenter said he was happy to help the current players and provide them with an exciting contest in the process.
“It ended up being a good game for them and basketball was the winner,” Carpenter said. “We had some pretty talented guys and the core went to Gilroy High. It was fun.”
