The Gilroy Mustangs junior varsity team enjoyed their Holiday
Break immensely as they captured the Watsonville Holiday Tournament
championship with a thrilling 78-68 victory over Salinas. Equally
impressive was the fact that this was the team’s third consecutive
tournament championship already this season, having won the
Hollister JV and Gilroy’s Bob Hagen Memorial tournaments in
December.
The Gilroy Mustangs junior varsity team enjoyed their Holiday Break immensely as they captured the Watsonville Holiday Tournament championship with a thrilling 78-68 victory over Salinas. Equally impressive was the fact that this was the team’s third consecutive tournament championship already this season, having won the Hollister JV and Gilroy’s Bob Hagen Memorial tournaments in December.
In the Watsonville tournament the young Mustangs squad opened with a 41-40 hard-fought victory over host Watsonville. In that game the squad was led in scoring by Jacob Dexter’s 11 points and Marshad Johnson’s 7 points and 9 rebounds.
In the quarterfinal game the ‘Stangs beat King City 65-42. Dexter led all scorers with 23 points and also had seven assists. He was followed by Derek Jensen with 12 points and Sean O’Neil with 7 rebounds.
The victory set up a semifinal rematch of Aptos and Gilroy, the two finalists in the Bob Hagen Memorial championship game. The ‘Stangs took control of the game early and cruised to the easy 69-46 win that advanced them to the title game. Dexter had 18 points and Stephan Galtman added 12 more for Gilroy. Johnson and Galtman also each had 10 rebounds.
The championship game was all that a title game should be as both teams had leads with the game winding down, forcing both squads to mount a comeback that would eventually force overtime. But in the overtime session Gilroy proved to be too much for the Salinas squad, outscoring its opponent 17-7 to capture the winner’s trophy.
Several Mustang players had a strong championship game. Johnson scored 14 points and grabbed 12 boards; Galtman had 12 points and 10 boards. Jensen finished with 14 points and Dexter ended his night in double figures as well with 12 points.
Gilroy’s Galtman was the Tournament MVP and Johnson and Dexter received Honorable Mention. The Mustangs defeated Alvarez last night to improve to 14-2. Gilroy begins its TCAL season on Thursday at home against arch rival San Benito.
