A 7-2 spurt midway through the fourth quarter provided the
Gilroy High boys basketball team with enough cushion to last them
down the stretch in a 64-58 victory over Milpitas in first round of
the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs Tuesday night in
Gilroy.
A 7-2 spurt midway through the fourth quarter provided the Gilroy High boys basketball team with enough cushion to last down the stretch in a 64-58 victory over Milpitas in first round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs Tuesday night in Gilroy.
Dietrich Baumgartner accounted for all seven of the breathing-room points, including a 3-pointer that put the 12th-seeded Mustangs up 50-46 with 3:54 to play in the contest. The next four points came closer to the rim – a rebound put back followed by a wide-open layup at the tail end of a Trojans turnover – as the Mustangs went ahead 54-46.
“It just got everybody going, I think,” Baumgartner said.
The 13th-seeded Trojans turned to their big man Derek Fox to inch them back into the ball game. Fox, who had a team-high 20 points, scored six of those in the final two minutes, 30 seconds of the fourth. His short-range hook left the Trojans down just three 58-55 with 34 ticks left. However, Cameron Yawary and Cameron Harrell hit a combined six free throws to ice the win.
“They really played hard, they competed and they really tried to execute the plan,” GHS head coach Matt Tait said. “They hit a couple when we needed it and got a couple turnovers in bunches.”
After falling behind 5-0, eight straight points from Yawary and a 3-pointer from Baumgartner ignited a quick 11-0 run.
“That’s what I told them, ‘you guys have to come out from the get-go, don’t dig yourself a hole. Let’s go out and do what we do from the beginning,” Tait said.
However, a flurry of Mustangs’ missed lay-ups allowed the Spartans to stay close at the end of the first 16-12.
“If we could make a couple of those lay-ups its a whole different game,” Tait said. “(The lead) would have been a lot more if you get a couple of those to go down. Then it’s a different game overall.”
GHS carried a slim one-point advantage (28-27) into the intermission and again (43-42) into the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs trailed on five separate occasions during the third, by as many as four with 3:30 left in the period and three with 50 seconds to play, before Chima Ikeme and Yawary hit back-to-back buckets to close out the quarter.
Ikeme posted his first career playoff double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, Baumgartner finished with 10 points while Yawary led all scorers with a game-high 24 points, including 10 of the Mustangs’ first 13 points in the opening quarter.
The Mustangs move on to face No. 5 seed Bellarmine on Thursday. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. in San Jose.
NOTES: In other CCS first-round action, No. 11 Menlo-Atherton defeated No. 14 Carlmont 46-38…No. 10 San Benito needed a pair of free throws with no time left on the clock in regulation to eke by No. 15 Fremont 55-54…No. 9 Watsonville beat No. 16 Wilcox 70-58.
