With 31 ticks left in the Mustang hoopsters’ opening night at
Gilroy High, senior guard Brandt Chacon drained a leaner on the
baseline that bounced several times on the rim before falling in.
His bucket gave Gilroy a two-point edge.
GILROY – With 31 ticks left in the Mustang hoopsters’ opening night at Gilroy High, senior guard Brandt Chacon drained a leaner on the baseline that bounced several times on the rim before falling in. His bucket gave Gilroy a two-point edge.
The visiting Carmel Pirates quickly brought the ball out past half-court and called for a time-out with 17 seconds remaining in Tuesday’s non-league opener for both squads. The inbound play went to forward Spencer Moran – who banked a three-pointer off the glass and in to give Carmel a one-point edge.
“I can take the bank, but not from the angle he shot it. That was almost an impossible shot,” first-year head coach Bud Ogden said. “I would almost have conceded them the two and it was my wildest dream that he’d get a bank three from that angle.”
The Mustangs (0-1) dribbled up court and called for a time-out to set up the final play with seven seconds left. Junior Jared Gamm inbounded to senior guard Ron Colmon – who went to his left before pulling up for mid-range jumper. His shot did not fall and senior forward Ben Hemeon could get off the putback after wrestling for the rebound, as Gilroy fell, 43-42.
“They took (the pass) away. I wanted Brandt to go all the way to the basket. We had trouble getting it to him. They really overplayed him. We couldn’t get it to him on two occasions not just one,” Ogden said. “So I said, ‘Don’t settle for the jumper’ and we settled for the jumper.
“To do it over again, maybe we’d go all the way to the hole and try to get that foul,” the former Santa Clara University All-American added. “I figured somebody would foul us on the way to the hoop and we’d win it at the free-throw line.”
The Mustangs never got to the free-throw line and could not get the ball to the hot-shooting Chacon – who scored all but two of Gilroy’s points in the second half for a team-high 21.
“I think he’s the kind of kid who can take a game over, but we can’t rely on him totally,” said Ogden of Chacon. “I think once we start relying on him too much they are going to key on him and the rest of us will wonder what to do.”
After jumping out in front with a 12-2 run to start the game and holding a seven-point lead at the half, the Mustangs drifted into an elongated scoring drought in the third quarter. Chacon hit two of three free throws with 4:28 left in the third and Gilroy did not score again until Gamm’s lay-up with 3:27 left in the fourth.
“We were stuck on 29 forever,” Ogden said. “I think that we’re going to be the kind of team if we shoot it well, we can open it up. But if we don’t shoot it well, we’re going to struggle like that.”
While Gilroy went completely cold from the field, the Pirates made their critical run – eventually taking the lead on Moran’s jumper 1:04 into the fourth and extending to a six-point advantage with 5:18 left.
“When we didn’t shoot well, they crept up on us. They seized the momentum from us and they made it work,” Ogden said. “We didn’t execute like I want us to execute yet. Our offense isn’t so awfully difficult that we shouldn’t execute better than that.”
Once Gamm ended Gilroy’s slump, Chacon went on a one-man scoring spree – draining three straight free throws and then hitting back-to-back trifectas, the last giving Gilroy a one-point lead. Carmel tied the score at 40-40 before Chacon hit his leaner for the brief lead. Then Moran’s three-pointer was the game-winner as Colmon’s jumper was off-target.
“Ronnie can shoot it pretty well and he can penetrate. I think if he would have to do it over again he wouldn’t have settled for that last jumper,” Ogden said. “He will nail nine out of 10 of those. We did get a decent shot, a decent look at the end. We even got the rebound, but couldn’t put it back.”
The Mustangs could not generate any easy buckets inside against a taller Carmel squad – which used big man Kyle Kretchmer (18 points) to clog the middle up.
“He basically took the middle away the whole game,” Ogden said. “We got very, very little inside.”
Senior forward Kyle Loving could not find his touch on his signature baby hook all night long – finishing with only two points in the first half.
“We got a bunch of good looks,” Ogden said. “Kyle Loving will hit at least half of those little hooks and I can’t remember when he couldn’t buy one.”
Junior sharp-shooter Kyle Warren – who led the junior varsity squad in scoring last season – finished with six points, all coming in the first half.
“Kyle Warren is an excellent shooter. He can really go on some unbelievable runs,” Ogden said. “He hit a couple of them in that stretch early on. He has a super fast release. He can get it off when your right in his face.”
Junior forward Vincent Mitre – who started as a sophomore on varsity – did not suit up because his grades deemed him ineligible.
“Absolutely we could have used him,” said Ogden, who was notified of Mitre’s status one hour before game-time. “Like I say there’s a key spot there where a couple of our football players went for their two minutes as hard as they could and their tongues were hanging out and I couldn’t pull them because I didn’t have that extra three to put in there.”
Coming from the football team were Hemeon (four points), Gamm (two points), and Mark Kennedy – who all worked hard under the boards for the Mustangs.
“We got a lift and some good old Gilroy tenacity out of our football players and some good toughness from Jared Gamm and Ben Hemeon,” Ogden said. “They’re not quite in shape yet. They go for a minute or two and get a little tired and maybe I stuck with them a little bit too long.”
Coach Ogden made wholesale changes several times during the game – subbing in five players at once. But the Mustangs could not get any flow to their offense.
“I’d like to do that all year if I can. I’m now testing a little bit to see which situation which kids operate the best, which ones I can rely on in different situations,” Ogden said. “I’d love to play them like that because quite frankly one through 14 are pretty solid and we don’t let down an awful lot.”
The Mustangs look to regroup, heading into a Dec. 2 road game against North Monterey County at 7 p.m. followed by a Dec. 4 home game against Alisal.
“I think there is a ton of stuff we can build on. It’s hard to look back at it right now. In the morning, it will feel so much better,” Ogden said. “This is a team though that we’ve got a bunch of seniors and several juniors and they’ve been around a little bit and they’ve played together a lot. We’re going to react down the stretch probably a little bit better as the season goes on.”
In the junior varsity game, the Mustangs blew out Carmel by a 58-25 margin as Ryan Chisolm finished with a team-high 14 points and teammate Vinny DeLorenzo added 10. In addition, Dominique Bertoneini finished with six rebounds and Andrew Alcones tallied six steals.
The freshman squad also had success – winning a 39-20 decision.
