GILROY — It had been more than a week since Gilroy had been on the court and at first, it showed.
But a second half surge powered Gilroy to a 66-34 win over Anzar in the opening round of the 34th Bob Hagen Memorial Boys Basketball Tournament Thursday at home.
Senior Zach Loo scored six of his 12 points in the second quarter, including four of the Mustangs’ nine unanswered points at the beginning of the third to break away from the Hawks 36-21.
“We came out in the third quarter with some fire. We had a chip on our shoulder, we just had to finish it up,” Loo said. “At halftime it kind of knocked some sense into us. We were still kind of rusty from the start, so we were like let’s get our stuff together and close this game out.”
The Hawks were well within striking distance at halftime, trailing Gilroy by just four points, 24-20. But the Mustangs charged into the second half with purpose scoring 42 points while holding the visitors just 14.
Sam Aptekar had a huge second half, scoring 13 points in the final quarters — including two 3-pointers to end the game.
“This group is very reserved and they like to think things through,” Mustangs coach Abrem Estorga said. “For them, something has to trigger. Our senior guards pulled them back together and they challenged them. They respond to each other very well, which is very good from my perspective — sometimes better than they respond to me. They coach each other and they’ve got a good relationship like that. It’s fun to watch.”
Josiah Wiley was a major factor throughout the entire game, scoring 12 points, nabbing five rebounds and picking up two blocks and a steal.
“We got great play from Josiah Wiley, he really sparked us up,” Estorga said. “He’s a firey guy, so all it took was a little bit to get him going and he was good.”
Travis Moulden scored 11 points and had three steals in the game. Hector Perez had seven points and seven rebounds in the game.
The Mustangs advance to the semifinals of the winner’s bracket where they will take on Oakwood, who beat Live Oak 58-55 in an overtime thriller Thursday. The winner will advance to the championship game at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“They’re (Oakwood) well coached and they’ve got a couple of athletes out there,” Estorga said. “It’s going to be a good game, but I think we match up very well. We play a little bit of a different style than them and I think that’s to our advantage. That’s why I play the game, we’ll see how it goes.”
