Gilroy is looking for its second straight title
Gilroy – It’s dejà vu for Gilroy’s boys basketball team.
The Mustangs enter the 27th Bob Hagen Memorial Tournament today coming off a loss by the exact same score in the same city as one year ago. Only last year’s 55-42 loss was at Valley Christian and Tuesday night’s defeat came at Oak Grove.
Now, if GHS can repeat what happened after last year’s 55-42 loss it may be onto something. Not only did Gilroy capture the Hagen tourney last year, it started a 13-game win streak.
One other similarity is that the Mustangs have four wins entering the tournament. That’s where the similarities end. Gilroy (4-4) opens with Pajaro Valley at 8pm whereas the Mustangs faced St. Francis of Watsonville in last year’s first game. The Sharks are back but they’re in the 6:30pm game with Live Oak.
“It will be interesting to see how we show up,” GHS coach Bud Ogden said. “I’ve always had good, competitive teams that never gave up. I don’t expect this team to give up.”
The Mustangs enter on a three-game losing streak. The losses, however, have come against teams (Oak Grove, McClymonds and Berkeley) that have a combined 15-3 record.
“We’ve had a rough road,” Ogden said. “Those are character builders. Now it’s time to put up.”
The unknown entering the tournament is Gilroy’s health. Jason Conrad, Spencer Ford, Javin Charlot and Marshad Johnson all missed Wednesday’s practice, the first three because of illness and Johnson because he had his broken nose reset.
Nevertheless, the Mustangs have enough talent to be competitive even if one or two are unavailable, and loom as a heavy favorite against Pajaro Valley. The Grizzlies enter with an 0-5 record, having dropped their most recent outing Tuesday 77-46 to Alisal.
“We’ve got to regroup and find ourselves,” Ogden said. “It’s good to finally get an opponent at home. We all need to be on the same page at the same time.”
Ogden noted that the guards at times have tried to take on too much offensively. It has gotten Charlot and Kameron Handy out of the rhythm they had earlier in the season. They need to get the big men more involved.
“If we ran a half-dozen set plays (against Oak Grove) I would be surprised,” Ogden said. “They pressured us out of our offense. It’s been a bit disappointing so far, but there is still time for us to get this straightened out.”
This is only Gilroy’s second home game and the first at Hagen Gym where the entire team is eligible.
The GHS JVs face St. Francis at 8pm in the auxiliary gym.
