Mustang Boys host Andrew Hill tonight at 7pm in the opening
round of the playoffs
Gilroy – The goal? Venture into uncharted territory.
For the Gilroy boys basketball team, that means getting past the first round of the CCS playoffs.
“We’ve been there, done that,” said Gilroy head coach Bud Ogden. “Certainly, we want to go further.”
This year, the Mustangs have the best chance they’ve had in recent years of making that a reality.
Gilroy lost to Piedmont Hills in the opening round of last season’s playoffs. In 2004, Ogden’s first year as head coach, the Mustangs didn’t make it to CCS.
But this year, Gilroy is sitting pretty as a No. 4 seed behind defending Division I champion Serra, Oak Grove and Bellarmine – exactly where the Gilroy coaching staff was expecting to end up.
“We’re happy and we want to make our presence felt,” Ogden said. “I think if we come out and click and play the way we can, we’ll be OK.”
Especially against first-round opponent, No. 13 Andrew Hill (12-12), which Gilroy hosts tonight at 7pm inside the Bob Hagen Gymnasium. The Mustangs (20-7) have an impressive size advantage over the Falcons, much like they’ve had countless times this season against other teams.
“Historically, they have not had a lot of size and this looks like a team cut out of similar cloth,” Ogden said of Andrew Hill, which has nine of 13 players on its roster listed under six feet tall.
The Falcons finished 5-9 for fifth place in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League (BVAL) and are 3-5 in their last eight games. Their go-to player is also their tallest – 6-foot-3 senior Adoness Walker. The perimeter forward averages 14.1 points per game. Another weapon Andrew Hill has is 5-foot-8 junior shooter Jeffery Peeters, who has fired in 46 three-pointers so far this season.
Ogden suspects Andrew Hill will play zone defense because of the size disadvantage the matchup presents to the Falcons.
In Gilroy’s favor, Ogden expects all of his Mustangs to be healthy and ready to play, including guard Jeremy Teschera. The senior shooter sat out of Friday’s game against Sobrato with a dislocated pinky on his left shooting hand.
“He practiced (Monday) and didn’t have very much protection on (his hand),” Ogden said. “You could tell it affected his shot a little bit, but his presence will be good.”
Six-foot-nine sophomore center Jason Conrad, who tweaked an ankle against Sobrato, should also be good to go.
If Gilroy wins tonight, the Mustangs will play the winner of tonight’s game between No. 12 San Benito (13-13) and No. 5 Milpitas (19-6) at Independence High Saturday. Top-seeded Serra, who finished tied for second in the tough West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) with Bellarmine, is the only team with a first-round bye.
Gilroy assistant coach Jeremy Dirks is impressed with Serra, which has won two consecutive CCS championships, but felt the Padres aren’t as dominant as No. 1 seeds in Division I have been in recent years.
“I just think this year (the No. 1 seed) is actually beatable,” Dirks said. “Usually you’ve got one team with two or three getting a ride (to play college ball). These guys aren’t.”
