Maddy Cox and Maggie Brinkman led Gilroy to a fourth quarter comeback-win over Westmoor 45-41 in the second round of CCS playoffs.
Gilroy put together a 16-3 run that was fueled by Ram’s turnovers and included two 3s by Cox—including one that tied the game at 41—Adina Valencia’s steal that led to a layup to take the lead with less than 30 seconds on the game clock, and Valencia’s two free throws to seal the next round playoff spot.
Mustangs’ defense allied with the clock, which had been the Rams best friend up to that point, to force Westmoor to take quick shots while still contesting them and denying any easy offensive rebound.
At that point, it seemed only a statistic that Gilroy had been down by 12 points early in the third quarter or that they had only led twice prior to Valencia’s layup.
Cox led the team with 13 points, all in the second half, and Maggie Brinkman contributed to the comeback with 12, with eight coming in the second half.
Gilroy had to battle back from a very slow first quarter.
The full-court pressure strategy the Rams used in the first half kept Gilroy’s offense quiet scoring nine points in the first quarter and five in the second.
“We had our starting point guard (Valencia) and our starting forward (Cox) out of the game on fouls,” Gilroy coach Mitchell Pierce said. “It’s like the worst case scenario for us.”
Valencia and Cox split the team’s first four fouls in the quarter.
“They were playing some tight defense so it was kind of different,” Cox said. “we’re not used to (have) people up close to us and they were just pressuring us.”
The Mustang defense fell for Westmoor’s trap in the first quarter that allowed the Rams to take an 8- point lead.
Westmoor used most of the shot clock to move the ball outside the three-point line and when a Mustang defender came out to pressure, it opened up a lane that the Rams took advantage to drive and score 17 points.
The Ram’s offense was led by Sabrina Tan who led all scorers with 17 points.
The Mustangs understood in the second quarter how Westmoor was playing and protected the paint the rest of the game allowing the Rams to score only in double digits in the third quarter with 10 points.
“They were driving a lot so we just needed to close down the key and see what they could do outside because they weren’t shooting very well,” Cox said.
Westmoor was 2-14 from the 3-point line.
It took a quarter for the Mustang defense to settle down, but it took the entire half for the offense to get into a rhythm.
Gilroy had 9 turnovers in the second quarter allowing the lead to increase to 10 points.
“All we could do is just pull through and do whatever we could to win the game,” Cox said.
Gilroy will now face one-seeded Presentation on Saturday at Aragon High School in San Mateo.
