The rally simply came too late. The hole was simply too large to
escape.
The rally simply came too late. The hole was simply too large to escape.
In Saturday’s title game of the 20th annual Mustang Classic, the Gilroy girls’ basketball team made a late charge but simply couldn’t overcome a sizable early deficit and fell to Aptos, 55-39.
“We just didn’t execute in the first quarter,” GHS head coach Kari Williams said. “And when you start like that, it definitely makes it an uphill battle.”
It was most certainly that.
The Mariners used a suffocating press early and often and stormed to a 26-6 lead by the end of the first quarter. The Mustangs (3-1) played better in the second, but still trailed 38-14 at the break.
“Aptos is a good team and they played a good game,” Williams said. “They pushed the ball and obviously executed the press effectively. They played well … far and away the best team we’ve faced this year.”
To Gilroy’s credit, though, there was no giving in after halftime.
After playing evenly with the Mariners in the third, the Mustangs trailed 49-24 in the closing seconds of the quarter. And that’s when things started to get interesting.
Starting with a pair of free throws at the end of third and stretching all the way to the 3:30 mark in the fourth, Gilroy held Aptos scoreless during a rousing 13-0 run.
In just under five minutes of play, a 25-point lead was trimmed down to just 12.
“That’s all I can ask from them,” Williams said. “I told the girls at halftime and during the timeouts that we had to forget about the score and just play basketball and execute – and that’s what they did.”
The Mustangs were led in scoring by junior Katherine Hussey (9 pts.), who was named to the all-tournament team along with fellow junior Kristen Campos, who scored 15 points in a semifinal win over Watsonville.
Gilroy, which beat Gunderson and the Wildcatz to reach the finals, is now preparing for its third straight trip to the Pacific Grove Tournament.
The Mustangs, who won the tourney in 2002 and finished fifth last season, begin play Thursday afternoon with a 3:30 game against Soledad.
