Sixth-Grade All-Net Girls Off to a 9-1 Start
Staff Reports
Girls Division I; Jan. 22: Gilroy 49, Hollister 23
The Gilroy Division 1 Lady Titans beat Hollister Sunday to improve to 6-0. Emily Costa led the Titans with a game-high 13 points. Alana Osaki and Lindsey Foster added 11 points each.
Jan. 29: Gilroy 31,
Coyote Creek 18
The Titans team won their seventh game in a row behind the efforts of Laura Steele, Emily Loera and Elaina Vasquez. Kristin Costa added six points to finish the game.
Boys Division I; Jan. 22: Mustangs 61, Willow Glen 50
Gilroy jumped out to an early lead thanks to some crafty steals and scoring by the Mustangs’ floor general Nathan Seifert (9 pts, 7 steals, 2 assists). Pacing the Mustangs throughout the game with an exceptional performance was Chris Catanzaro, who led all scorers with 18 points. Catanzaro, the quickest player on the court who also entertained the crowd with some unbelievable steals, also had eight rebounds, seven steals and three blocks. Cameron Yawary (9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals) also had a strong performance, breaking down Willow Glen’s defense by penetrating into the paint at will. In addition to some great individual performances, the Mustangs played great team ball with distributed scoring, rebounding, team defense and hustle. The Mustangs defend their perfect record of 6-0 this weekend in Gilroy against another Willow Glen team.
Jan. 29: Mustangs 61, Willow Glen 30
The Mustangs were energized by their big man in the paint: Dominic Leach. Leach was unstoppable, garnering 29 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks. Also leading the charge for the Mustangs were the Colton twins, Ryan and Zack. Both Ryan and Zack ratcheted-up the intensity level with hard-nosed defense, good passing and a relentless fastbreak attack. The Mustangs play the Gilroy MJ Boys next Sunday.
Girls Division II; Jan. 22: Gilroy/Morgan Hill All-Stars 37, Los Gatos Lightening 26
Staging an impenetrable defensive front, the All-Stars dominated the first period 11-2. The Lightening defense came to life in the second period, holding the
All-Stars to six points. The Lightening offense blasted 14 points through the struggling All-Star players and started halftime in the lead by a point, 16-15. Rejuvenated after a halftime session, the All-stars battled their best defensive game of the season. In the last few seconds of the third period, Katherine McGill sank a shot to pull ahead of the Lightening and end the period with a 21-20 All-Star lead. The Los Gatos team was unable to penetrate the All-Stars’ solid defense . Gilroy/Morgan Hill’s Jasmine Gutierrez, Ebony Stevens and Claudia Ferreira dominated the game in rebounds and steals, holding the Lightening’s offense to a mere three shots for the remainder of the game. Tiyana Rogers led the team on an offensive scoring spree, scoring a total of 18 points for the game. Stevens added another eight points to the score, with Ferreira and Vanessa Martinez each adding another two points each.
“This was an incredibly well played game by both teams,” said All-Stars coach Ron Tabron. “All the girls on our team played extremely well as individuals and came together as a team”
Jan. 29: G/MH All-Stars 27, Willow Glen Warriors 12
The All-Stars dominated the game from the start, finishing the first period 12-2 lead. The Warriors were held to to 10 points the remainder of the game.
High scorers for the All-Stars were Stevens (10 points), Rogers (9 points), Gutierrez (4 points) and Tabron (2 points) and Bryanna Pereira (2 points). The team holds a record of 5-2.
Sixth Grade All-Net Girls Off to 9-1 Start
For the first time, the Gilroy/Morgan Hill chapter of NJB is competing at the All-Net level of play, which was created to serve the needs of kids who are interested in playing high school basketball by following high school playing rules and offering a more advanced level of competition. NJB has two teams in All-Net, a sixth-grade boys team and a sixth-grade girls team.
The Girls All-Net team, coached by Bruce Mah and Ed Sauceda, improved its record to 9-1 this past Sunday with wins over Coyote Creek and Almaden. With the wins, the girls maintained their hold on first place in the 11-team division.
Gilroy and Almaden both entered their game Sunday with just one loss apiece, but Gilroy was able to pull out a 33-30 victory in a hard-fought game. The leading scorer for Gilroy was Sara Sauceda with 10 points, followed by Kaylana Mah and Michelle Sosa with eight points each. Sarina Sandoval, Kacey Lester and Ashlee Williams each collected several rebounds and also contributed on offense. Gilroy’s only loss of the season came at the hands of Berryessa in a close game (44-47). But the team will get another crack at the Berryessa team again in two weeks when it visits Gilroy on February 12th.
Gilroy leads the league in team scoring, averaging 42 points per game. Leading the offense are center Williams and guards Sauceda, Mah and Sosa, who have all scored over 75 points for the season. Also making big contributions to the team’s first-place position in the standings are Sarah Spindell, Alex Olvera and Sara Ordaz.
