Hoeft, Campos carry Gilroy hoops past Pirates, 43-42
SAN JOSE – Sophomore point guard Kristen Campos kept the Lady Mustang hoopsters afloat in the third quarter of Saturday’s Central Coast Section quarterfinal contest against Piedmont Hills, scoring the team’s only six points.
Senior center Sarah Hoeft then took over the workload in the final quarter, where she netted nine of her team-high 17 points, to lead No. 5 Gilroy to a thrilling 43-42 victory over No. 4 Piedmont Hills.
“Sarah Hoeft was outstanding. This is what I expect every game from Sarah Hoeft. She’s a senior and she stepped it up, and when she got the ball, she went to the basket with it,” second-year head coach Kari Williams said. “Campos started out a little bit flat, but she kept us alive there for a while. She was treading on water and trying to hold everybody up. She did an outstanding job.”
Campos finished with 10 points, none more important than the six in the third quarter when the Lady Pirates were making their run and the Lady Mustangs could not buy a bucket.
The baton was passed over to Hoeft in the fourth quarter and the senior leader took care of business on both sides of the court in a pressure-filled finish. Coming out of a time-out with 27 seconds left and Piedmont Hills ahead by one, sophomore Catherine Hussey inbounded the ball to Hoeft, who confidently drained a pull-up jumper in the paint to give Gilroy the lead.
“We were trying to work it into the post. If it wasn’t there, then it wasn’t there,” Hoeft said. “We had 27 seconds on the clock. (Coach Williams) said just to play as you practice.”
Hoeft was getting double-teamed on nearly every possession up court, so Hussey waited patiently for her to get opened and then hit her with the inbound pass.
“They were double- and triple- teaming Sarah for part of the game, but I think that the girls knew to get it into her. I didn’t even have to tell them,” Williams said. “You could see they were letting her get opened, getting her the ball, and letting her take care of it. That’s what we needed from her. They need to know that without me telling her.”
There was still 20 seconds remaining and the Lady Pirates came out of their time-out with hopes of reclaiming the lead. But Hoeft came up big on the other end, taking an offensive charge before Piedmont Hills could get a shot off.
“I have a problem being in foul trouble, so this game all I was thinking about was not fouling, hands up, defense, shuffle your feet, all of that,” Hoeft said. “I’ve been practicing moving my feet and, all of the other games, I was taking charges, but this is a different kind of charge.”
It returned the ball to Gilroy, which still led by one, with eight second remaining.
“I thought (the official) was going to call a block on me,” Hoeft said. “I was just glad he called a charge.”
Following another time-out by Gilroy, Hussey inbounded to Campos, who was immediately fouled. But the freshman missed the opening end of a one-and-one, and once again Piedmont Hills called a time-out with :04 showing.
This set up the second clock mishap of the night – the first coming right before Hoeft took the charge when time did not tick off and the officials ran six seconds off. This time with four ticks left, Piedmont’s Bianca Russell received the inbound pass, dribbled into the key and took the final shot that hit front rim.
But once again the clock never started and the officials were forced to make a critical decision. After first taking two seconds off and setting up for another final play, the head official changed his mind and ended the game right there.
“If we were ahead by a lot, we wouldn’t have cared as much, but definitely in a game like that when that clock doesn’t go,” Williams said. “The first time they only took off six seconds, I thought, ‘OK’. And then at the end, I was like they have to be kidding me. … That’s gotta be time.”
It made for a frustrating finish in a tight game that saw the lead change hands six times, as well as four tie scores, through the final two quarters.
“I had faith,” Hoeft said. “I told the girls that this is a second chance for us, so we might as well give it all of our heart. If God didn’t want us to be here, he wouldn’t have put us here.”
The Lady Mustangs petitioned into the playoffs with an 11-15 overall record (3-7 in T-CAL) since they did not automatically qualify with a .500 record either overall or in league. Piedmont Hills had a winning record in its league, but was 9-13 overall coming in.
“I’m not surprised,” said Williams of her team’s gutsy performance. “That’s the thing, I’m not surprised. I think that this team is a good basketball team and we’re here to prove that.”
Up next, Gilroy will play top seed Alisal (17-8) in Wednesday’s semifinal game at 6 p.m. at Leland High School. The other Division I semifinal at 8 p.m. is between T-CAL foes No. 3 San Benito and No. 2 Salinas.
“They have a pretty good inside game,” said Williams, who saw Alisal beat Salinas by one earlier in the season. “They have a pretty good shooter from the outside, and they have a pretty good tall center, so we’ll see. It’s going to be a good game.”
After taking a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter that was finished with a Campos trey, the Lady Mustangs held on to a slim edge throughout the second quarter that ended with a Nowakowski three-pointer to put them up by eight.
“Marissa Nowakowski played the best defense. She was all over the place and she hit that three,” Williams said. “She practices that all the time, so it was a good thing we do that.”
The Lady Pirates rallied out of the gates in the third quarter, outscoring Gilroy 16-6, to take a two-point lead. But Hoeft poured it on in the final quarter with nine of the Lady Mustangs’ 13 points compared to only 10 points from Piedmont Hills.
“I was feeling good,” Hoeft said. “My whole life of playing basketball in high school, it was just like growing up from CCS. Sophomore year going to quarterfinals, junior year going to semifinals, and, this year, I have enough confidence that we are going to go to finals.”
The championship game will be played on Saturday at the San Jose State University Events Center at 1:30 p.m.
“We played a tough game and did everything that we needed to do to win this game, and we came out with a win. It was tough. I felt like we never really got a scoring run going,” Williams said. “We missed a lot of easy, inside shots, which have been a nemesis for us all year, but we kept hanging in there. That’s the difference of this team as to the earlier team.
“We have the leadership on the floor with Sarah Hoeft, and we didn’t have that as much before,” the coach added. “We didn’t have somebody who had been there and wanted to be there. That’s the differences. We hung on and did the right things.”
