Lady Mustang hoopsters knock off top-seed Alisal in semifinals,
64-42
SAN JOSE – Coach Kari Williams thought she had over-estimated her young-but-talented basketball team, making a bold pre-season prediction that the Lady Mustangs would compete for a league and, possibly, a section title this season.
After only three league wins and a below .500 overall record, Williams had every reason to second guess herself, but she still had faith and successfully petitioned her squad into the CCS Division I Playoffs.
Williams now knows her first instinct was the right call since her No. 5-seeded Lady Mustangs rolled over top seed Alisal in Wednesday’s 64-42 semifinal victory at Leland High School in San Jose.
“We had this conversation about five months ago and, after a 3-7 league, I said, ‘Wow, maybe I misjudged them,’ but I think that I didn’t,” said the second-year head coach, who guided Gilroy into the semifinals during her rookie season. “I thought we’d be here. We put March 6 on our door and set that for our goal at the beginning of the season. This is where we wanted to be, playing on March 6.”
Back-to-back playoff wins has given the Lady Mustangs an opportunity to play for the Division I title on Saturday at the San Jose State University Events Center against the winner of the other semifinal game between No. 2 Salinas and No. 3 San Benito. The championship tip-off is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
“No, I’m not really surprised at all because I knew the team that played tonight was the team that we should have been playing the whole year,” said sophomore point guard Kristen Campos, who finished with five points and a ton of assists. “We’ve seen both of these teams (San Benito and Salinas) twice, and I think that we had a chance both times against them, but I think we’ll get one this time.”
Gilroy (14-15 overall) shocked Alisal, which received an first-round bye, right off the opening tip, jumping out to a 22-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Trojans did their best to claw back into contention, but the garlic hoopsters never let them get too close for comfort.
“We were so pumped. They hadn’t played a game yet, and we had already played, so we knew we were ready for this. We studied their films and everything, so we were prepared,” said sophomore Katherine Hussey, who finished with a team-high 18 points. “We all played really well. People would come in and the level wouldn’t change. We were all playing really hard and everyone deserves credit.”
Senior center Sarah Hoeft matched Hussey’s 18-point effort to lead the Lady Mustang charge, while junior forward Amanda Link added 10 points and junior guard Shante Mancera tallied eight points.
“Coach talked to some of us about our games, what we need to step on and improve, and actually most of the girls did that. It was great,” said Hoeft, who predicted a championship berth entering the post-season. “We started slow in the season, but it’s all about CCS now. I think it was the season that made us jittery, but it’s a whole different story in CCS.”
It certainly was, as Gilroy effectively passed the ball up court for open shots and layups and also pressed Alisal (17-9 overall) with a pesky defense, preventing any easy looks.
“They played great. They played incredible defense. They’re just coming of age. My sophomores aren’t sophomores any more. They have some experience,” Williams said. “I’ve got people coming off the bench who are elevating their play even higher than the ones who are out there. I have a great team right now. They are playing good basketball.”
In the center of all the action was Campos, who quickly outgrew her first-year varsity timidness as a sophomore starter and blossomed into Gilroy’s court general, dishing the ball and shooting the rock with a senior’s confidence.
“The point guard, that’s a tough position to play because when things are going down, everybody is on you and when things are great, then you get to say, ‘But I’ve been doing this all year. What do you mean?’ ” Williams said. “I just think we took care of the ball better. Our press was outstanding tonight. We did such good stuff. I mean, what wasn’t good?”
“I’ve gotten more confident,” Campos said. “Just because I’m a sophomore doesn’t mean anything. I was intimidated by that at first, but then you just come out here and play at the level and you get used to it.”
After taking a 16-point lead at half, which ended with Alisal’s Mieshel Bacon draining a three-pointer for some momentum, Gilroy matched the Lady Trojans out of the locker room. For every Alisal bucket, there was a quick response, as the Lady Mustangs were up 51-33 at the end of the third quarter.
“The girls came out and once they saw even a glimpse of success, they just piled it on and piled it on,” Williams said. “We had a game plan and they played the defense I wanted to play. We took their shooters kinda out of their game and really did a great job.”
In the final quarter, the Lady Mustangs did not let up the pressure, pushing the ball up court every chance they had with crisp passing, which resulted in easy buckets on the inside.
“We talked about it at halftime, us not taking care of the time on the other end, (but) those are the kind of things a young team still does. They think they are going to get that one more basket, so it’s hard to fault them,” Williams said. “You could see me on the sideline today, saying, ‘Slow it down. Slow it down,’ and they’re going in for layups, so what do you do?”
Gilroy finished just as relentless and unforgiving as the team started the game, not giving Alisal a chance to get into a rhythm.
“I think the advantage of coming out and playing a game before they played. This was their first CCS game, they had the bye; it helped us,” Williams said. “We got the nerves out. We got our win in. Hey, we’re the fifth seed. We’re going to go out there and whatever happens …”
The Lady Mustangs did their homework on Alisal by studying game film, and Williams put together the game plan that was executed by her players.
“I think we weren’t really intimidated that they were the number-one seed, and we’d been practicing real hard, so we just came out and we did what we needed to do,” Campos said.
“Kristen, Marissa (Nowakowski) and I played together for three years now, so we’re pretty well connected, and with everyone else, we’re really such a close team,” Hussey said. “We love each other so much that we just push and push and push.”
The collective push has gotten the Lady Mustangs into a position that Williams originally thought they would be in, playing for the CCS title on Saturday.
