SANTA CLARA—Christopher was on the cusp of erasing a 10-point halftime deficit against Los Gatos when the Wildcats’ coach called timeout midway through the fourth quarter.
The Cougars were within one of tying the game thanks to Zander Bowers making an and-one followed by Dillon Day hitting a bucket to put the game at 38-37.
From, there, however, Los Gatos went 12 of 15 from the line—making just one field goal down the stretch—to put the game on ice and win 52-43 to eliminate Christopher from the Central Coast Section Division II playoffs.
“It’s a lot closer than we have been in the past couple of years. It’s clicked a lot better that led us all the way here. It just couldn’t capitalize on it tonight,” Bowers said.
The Cougars finish the season 16-9 overall, 7-5 in the Monterey Bay League-Gabilan Division.
“To be the fourth seed in this tournament is next to not happening and you get it (was great),” said Cougar coach Dan Mooney. “And I knew how good Los Gatos would be—they play a tough schedule—so you come into a game like that, you had the whole week off … you can’t say enough.”
Saturday’s game started so well for Christopher, who went on a 6-2 run to begin the game. From there, CHS was outscored 22-8 to go into halftime down 24-14.
“Yes it would have been nice to have pulled it off, and they tried and tried, but never really got into our momentum,” Mooney said. “Any time your top scorer—your best player—is held to two points, something is not going to be in your favor.”
Chad Hartman came into the game averaging double figures, but was held to two points as Los Gatos did its best to eliminate Christopher’s primary threat.
Mooney said that makes things rough, but it is incumbent on the rest of the team to step up and fill the void.
“You have to go to other people, Pacheco hit a couple, but their defense stayed up,” Mooney said. “What could you say? I thought (Los Gatos) did a good job, but we fought and we fought and we fought.”
Only Bowers hit more than one basket down that stretch to lead the Cougars in scoring with six at the half.
Meanwhile, Drew Krulevitch was a perfect 5-5 from the line in the first half, which accounted for roughly half of his game-leading 11 in the first half. Krulevitch had a game-high 19 by the end, which including shooting 6 of 8 from the charity strip in the fourth quarter.
Bowers, meanwhile, got hot in the third quarter, putting up six of the team’s 13 points out of halftime to get Christopher back into the game. He finished with 17 on the night.
He added seven rebounds and three blocks on the night.
“This could be our last game and we had to realize that. We either have to play as hard as can or go home,” Bowers said. “I think we just didn’t try as hard as we could in the first quarter and we couldn’t come back from the deficit we put ourselves in.”
Day followed with nine points and Xavier Smith had eight.
Smith hit two key 3-pointers in Christopher’s fourth-quarter rally.
“Coming out of halftime, I said guys, this is playoff time. No cares about anything but to try to win and they are going to do anything to do it,” Mooney said. “I think they got it. But still, that fire power that we had (wasn’t there). It’s been a long season, don’t get me wrong.”
Hartman led the Cougars with eight rebounds.
The ultimate downfall for the Cougars, however, was turnovers.
Christopher committed 18 for the game, including six in the fourth quarter.
Mooney said he was overall very pleased with the season after coming to Christopher late in the process and led the Cougars to a No. 4 seed.
“To take over a team and recreate it and have a season like this, you can’t say enough about it,” Mooney said.
Christopher is losing just a couple of seniors from its starting roster and five in total. Still, the Cougars have a solid core of returners who can fill in for the graduating seniors.
“The potential is endless. And you have to understand getting the job on July 31, the last day of dead season, it did nothing,” Mooney said. “… Now you have all spring and summer with AAU.”
Mooney added he is going to give the kids a few weeks off before he kicks off the AAU season that he will keep open to all of Gilroy and get the kids ready for next season.
“As a coach you feel bad, it’s going to be a long ride home, but overall, it’s been a stellar season,” Mooney said.
