A massive second quarter leads to the Mustangs’ blowout victory
over the Condors.
Ice cold, and in a blink, red hot.
A sluggish start and an unforgiving rim left the Gilroy High boys basketball team briefly trailing visiting North Monterey County 4-3 two-and-a-half minutes into the first quarter of the teams’ non-league contest Thursday night.
Head coach Matt Tait scanned his bench and sent in a brand new batch of fresh faces – and goodbye deficit, hello blowout.
Conner Ross provided the first spark with eight points to spur a Mustangs’ 13-4 run to close out the period. It was all GHS after that in a 78-19 drubbing of the Condors.
“I feel like we stepped up our defense tonight,” said Ross, who finished with 14 points. “We didn’t have as many turnovers tonight. It’s just about getting better every game.”
The Mustangs (4-1) scored from everywhere on the court in the second quarter – including a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from half court by Kyle Stannard – and shot a lights-out 65 percent from the field, receiving buckets from eight different players to take a commanding 54-16 advantage.
Dylan Jensen scored all of his seven points in the second, and Cameron Yawary, who started the game 1-for-9, drained three straight 3-pointers as the lead continued to balloon.
Stefan Mercer (2), Cameron Harrell (6), Chima Ikeme (2) and Ryan Valentino-Pickett (5), all also hit nylon in the rousing second.
GHS went up by 40 points 30 seconds into the third quarter and a running game clock was implemented.
The Mustangs held the Condors to a single point in the third period, inflating the cushion to 67-17, on a pair of buckets from Dietrich Baumgartner, Yawary and one each from Ikeme and Robby Filice. Baumgartner collected a team-high nine rebounds to go along with nine points.
Yawary led the team in scoring for the third consecutive game, recovering from the slow start to put away 17 points.
Gilroy has the weekend off but returns to the floor Tuesday at home against Oak Grove. Game time is now 5:30 p.m., moved up from the original start of 7 p.m.
