Mustangs exit from playoffs after 59-43 loss to Milpitas
San Jose – The Gilroy boys basketball team learned an important lesson in the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs: Don’t believe everything you see on television.
While studying game film of quarterfinal opponent, fifth-seeded Milpitas, the 6-foot-10, 6-foot-6, 6-foot-4 starting trio of Spencer Ford, Adam Close and Trojan leading scorer Erik Rush didn’t look so intimidating. But in person? That was another story.
“We’ve never really played a team bigger than us,” said senior guard Vinny DeLorenzo.
At Independence High, Saturday afternoon, the unfamiliar surroundings had some negative effects on the Mustangs, who uncharacteristically missed their first seven shots of the game. The bad start put the Mustangs behind 8-1, three minutes into the game.
“We came out and we were, I don’t know, awestruck,” said Gilroy head coach Bud Ogden.
Gilroy never really overcame that barrier. The Mustangs cut the Trojans’ perpetual double-digit lead to eight with 4:21 to play, but Milpitas went on a 10-2 run down the stretch to win the game 59-43 and end Gilroy’s championship season.
The Trojans (21-6) will play top-seeded Serra (19-10) Wednesday in the semifinals at Independence. Gilroy finished the season 21-8.
The Mustangs pushed for one last run midway through the fourth quarter. Down 35-49, Dominik Wilkins got a three-pointer to fall with 5:04 left. On Gilroy’s next trip down the floor, Kameron Handy went strong to the hoop and converted the basket despite being fouled. He made the free throw for the three-point play. That brought Gilroy within 41-49. But Rush answered with back-to-back treys, the back-breaking blows to Gilroy’s last effort at a comeback.
The player Gilroy ended up relying on for its offense for most of the game was junior Handy, who came off the bench to score 16 points. He had six of Gilroy’s nine points at the end of the first quarter and half of the Mustangs’ 22 points when they trailed 30-22 at the half. Time after time, the junior took defenders off the dribble and slashed his way to the basket.
“(Handy) is just about the only player we can depend upon to individually create shots and make it,” Ogden said.
After seeing his teammates struggle to get into the game offensively, Handy felt he needed to try to score any way he could.
“My confidence has really been boosted back up to where it should be. In the beginning of the season, I was kind of lost,” Handy said.
Ogden felt Milpitas dominance on the offensive boards also killed his team’s chances.
“We didn’t block out at all and I think if there was maybe any one facet, their second, third, fourth shots were really our undoing,” he said.
It didn’t help Gilroy’s cause that Rush was having a hot shooting night. The senior guard finished with 23 points and four three-pointers.
“They shot well,” said senior Ryan Chisolm, who finished with three points and five rebounds. “Whenever we made a comeback, Erik Rush would come down and hit a three.”
As the final buzzer sounded, the Gilroy careers ended for six seniors. Though the reality that their CCS dreams were coming to an end sunk in earlier for DeLorenzo.
“I started feeling bad midway through the fourth quarter,” the senior guard said. “You start to think how you’ve been with all these kids since middle school and to think it all comes down to this.”
Chisolm’s reality hit him when he got out of bed Sunday.
“It hit me more Sunday when I woke up and realized, ‘Man, we really did lose.'”
