Girls spoil Homecoming in Morgan Hill, while boys fall short
By Jim Johnson
Morgan Hill – Coming off a big loss to first-place Notre Dame last week, Gilroy High girls’ basketball coach Kari Williams wasn’t about to let her team relax going into last night’s matchup against a less-talented Live Oak team. So, she used the week between the games to work her team hard in practice, focusing on fundamentals like defense and rebounding.
Last night, the Mustangs showed off all that hard work.
Combining a devastating full-court press with a determined effort on the offensive glass, Gilroy routed host Live Oak 59-40 to solidify its hold on second-place in the Tri-County Athletic League.
“It’s always important – it doesn’t matter who you play – to come back with a win after a disappointing loss,” Williams said. “I thought we’d be able to control the tempo and use our height on the boards, and we did that.”
For junior forward Katherine Hussey, who scored a game-high 19 points for the Mustangs, it was all about the basics against the Acorns.
“We’ve been practicing hard all week and our goal in this game was to use what we worked on in practice,” Hussey said. “We boxed out like we’ve been working on and we used our speed to our advantage.”
The Acorns used a scrappy defense to slow down the Gilroy offensive attack early on. But the Mustang press began paying dividends late in the first quarter. Led by Hussey and super-quick guards Kristen Campos and Marissa Nowakowski, Gilroy held Live Oak without a field goal for nearly eight minutes from late in the first quarter until Acorn center Afshawn Chakamian’s bucket with 1:30 left in the half.
Meanwhile, the Mustangs began tossing the ball inside to center Amanda Link, who had eight of her 12 points in the first half against the smaller Acorns. Hussey added nine points in the first half on a variety of inside-outside scoring maneuvers.
Gilroy sprinted to a 21-7 lead to take control of the game and led 30-18 at the half.
“They’re so much bigger inside – we’re out there trying to trap them and they figured out how to get the ball inside,” Acorns coach Jeff Perkins said.
In the second half, the home team scored the first basket to pull within 10 points of the lead but Gilroy answered with an 8-0 run, punctuated by Jessica Groppe’s basket.
LO got to within 10 points once more, on Acorn Sarah Goodere’s hoop to cap a 7-0 run with 1:26 left in the third quarter.
But the Mustangs rallied to outscore the Acorns 12-2 over the next 3:44 to take an insurmountable 53-33 lead with 5:42 to play.
Gilroy improved to 14-7/3-1 with the victory, while Live Oak fell to 4-13/1-3.
Stangs can’t play spoilers
By Damon Poeter Sports Editor
Morgan Hill – The Gilroy boys’ basketball team would have liked nothing better than to spoil Live Oak’s Homecoming. And for nearly 21 minutes, the Mustangs looked like they might pull it off.
But the Acorns weren’t about to let it happen.
Matt Van Keulen hit a long bucket with 3:15 to go in the third quarter, giving Live Oak its first lead in Friday night’s clash between league rivals. The Acorns never looked back, playing tough defense down the stretch and hitting all the key free throws as they won going away, 44-34.
“It hurts,” said Mustang senior forward Adam Moon, who had 11 points, mostly off offensive rebounds. “For the seniors, we’ve never won in Morgan Hill since the eighth grade. We really wanted this.”
The final score was somewhat misleading. Gilroy trailed by just three points with a little over a minute to go in the game. But Live Oak’s Mubarik Abdullahi hit a huge shot from the right baseline with 1:14 left, stretching the Acorns’ lead to 39-34. The sophomore guard had 12 off the bench to lead Live Oak.
Leading at the half 20-17, Gilroy emerged from the locker room to find an Acorns squad that wanted to put a turnover-ridden second quarter behind it and take its game to the ‘Stangs.
“Coach (Jeff Perkins) said slow down and keep playing our game at the half,” said Acorns center Kevin Toombs.
Apparently, the pep talk worked. Live Oak held GHS to just 14 points in the second half.
“You’ve got to give credit to their ‘D’,” said Mustangs head coach Bud Ogden, whose team falls to 0-4 in the TCAL, 11-11 overall. Live Oak is now 1-3 in league play, 10-8 overall.
