GILROY – As is often the case, the deeper a team advances into a
tournament bracket, the stiffer the competition gets.
For the Gilroy High girls basketball team, that progression came
to fruition and culminated in a hard-fought defensive dual in the
championship game of the 23rd annual Mustang Classic against St.
Francis C.C.C. on Saturday night.
GILROY – As is often the case, the deeper a team advances into a tournament bracket, the stiffer the competition gets.
For the Gilroy High girls basketball team, that progression came to fruition and culminated in a hard-fought defensive dual in the championship game of the 23rd annual Mustang Classic against St. Francis C.C.C. on Saturday night.
In a game that could’ve gone either way, a clutch 3-pointer and converted free throws down the stretch gave the Sharks a 33-28 victory over the Lady Mustangs.
“I would say that I am upset that we lost the game, but I am definitely not upset with the effort that the girls put forth,” head coach Tim Jones said. “They always play hard.”
With neither team shooting the ball with much success, it was a turnover-laden struggle throughout and each made basket seemed to carry weighted importance.
“Some of the things that we may not do well right now but will later in the year kind of showed tonight,” Jones said. “We don’t execute on offense as well as we would like to right now but that’s something we can fix.”
Despite the lack of offensive punch, the game didn’t fall short of providing its tense moments, especially in a back-and-forth fourth quarter.
“We are hard workers and we will keep pushing ourselves,” said junior guard Ashley Lambert, who came up with a big rebound that led to a Lauren Rhodes fast-break bucket giving the Mustangs their first lead, 18-16, three minutes into the second half.
“The only problem that we had on offense is that we kind of forced it,” she added. “I think if we just settled down it would have been a totally different game.”
The Mustangs held a four-point cushion, 22-18, at the start of the final quarter, where it stood until less than six minutes remaining.
The Sharks’ Chloe Breszny, who was selected to the All-Tournament team, worked her way inside with a nifty spin move for a lay-up. Mustangs’ senior guard Sovi Nou earned two free throws, which she handled, and extended the lead back to four. But, Breszny shouldered her way into the lane on the Sharks’ next trip down, finishing with her left hand. The Sharks tied the game at 24-all with four-minutes and 30 seconds left, however, the Mustangs regained the lead after senior Lindsey Foster’s drive to the rim for the score and one. She missed the free throw but added to the Mustangs lead on their subsequent possession with another two-point bucket with less than three minutes.
“Now we just have to learn how to protect a lead like that and how to execute and build on that,” Jones said.
The Mustangs went scoreless the rest of the way as the Sharks rattled off seven straight points.
Junior Chelsea Hill grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, and for the second game in a row Nou topped the Mustangs in scoring, dropping 10 points.
The loss was the first for the Mustangs who sit a 3-1 in the early portion of the season. The 28 points was by far the lowest point total for the Mustangs in the tournament who put up a whopping 81 in the first round against King City on Thursday, and a solid 56 against Aptos on Friday.
After the 81-point outburst to open the tournament, the Mustangs struggled from the field in the following two outings.
Aptos took a 20-14 lead into the locker room, but an all-around team effort sparked a monster third quarter and propelled the Lady Mustangs to a 56-46 victory on Friday,
Something clicked for the Mustangs in the third quarter as Nou drained a 3-pointer on their opening possession of the second half, which set the tone in a 16-point quarter for GHS and a 36-30 advantage.
Chipping away at the Aptos lead, senior center Laura Steele scored four straight points to bring the Mustangs to within four at 25-21. And after a Foster steal leading to a Lambert breakaway lay-up, GHS was suddenly down by just a bucket. After a Mariners’ free throw, Lambert followed with a clutch 3-pointer to tie things up at 28-28 as the Mustangs proceeded to go on an 8-2 run to close out the quarter.
The Mustangs began to pull away midway through the fourth, extending their lead to 42-32 after a Rhodes lay-up, and didn’t look back after that.
Nou posted a team-high 14 points and Lambert finished with 10. Rhodes contributed eight points, and Foster and Hill had six apiece.
The Mustangs get a chance to avenge for the championship loss as they host St. Francis at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
