Two nights later, Dana Schoeneman one-upped Russhelle
Preeshl.
But balance won out over a remarkable individual effort as North
Salinas downed Gilroy 49-35 Thursday at Bob Hagen Memorial Gym to
take early control of the Tri-County Athletic League race.
Gilroy – Two nights later, Dana Schoeneman one-upped Russhelle Preeshl.
But balance won out over a remarkable individual effort as North Salinas downed Gilroy 49-35 Thursday at Bob Hagen Memorial Gym to take early control of the Tri-County Athletic League race.
Schoeneman had 21 points and 22 rebounds, numbers even more impressive than Preeshl’s 22 and 17 against San Benito. No other Mustang had more than five points. Preeshl did, however, have 13 rebounds as Gilroy outrebounded the Vikings 55-35. The Mustangs, though, shot just 13 of 60 from the field in the loss.
“They gave it everything they had but just didn’t finish,” GHS coach James Wilkins said of his team. “That’s what we worked on during practice – finishing. We’re still trying to find the right combination. One piece of the puzzle is missing.”
That one piece of the puzzle would appear to be in the backcourt where the Mustangs are struggling to find offense. By breaking North Salinas’ press fairly easily, Gilroy (10-4 overall, 2-1 TCAL) found itself with more open shots than usual.
“Maybe that was part of the problem,” suggested Schoeneman. “We’re not used to getting open shots. We usually have to work harder. The shots just weren’t falling for us.”
They were falling for Schoeneman, who worked hard on the inside and outscored the Viking trio of Audrey Sanchez, Bina Abbott and foul-plagued Dominique Hill. Sanchez did score 11 points. Hill, North Salinas’ second leading scorer averaging more than 12 a game, had just six.
It was outside where the Vikings (12-4, 3-0) beat the Mustangs. Whereas Gilroy broke the press, it threw the ball away too often, committing 23 turnovers.
Briana Mathews was in the middle of everything the Vikings did, scoring 12 points, handing out six assists and making five steals.
“The idea is to play tight defense,” Mathews said. “That’s what we always work on. We want to take the open shot but it’s defense that is going to win games for us. This was a good win for us because they beat us twice last year and won league.”
Gilroy got the early lead as Schoeneman hit inside and Preeshl made two free throws. The Mustangs still led 10-7 after Angela Silveria scored off a fastbreak on an assist from Amanda Spellman.
North Salinas scored the last seven points of the quarter and never trailed again. The Vikings led 24-16 at halftime, a score that would have been far worse except that Schoeneman already had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The Vikings maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half to stretch their win streak to four.
“We just have to go to their court and tear it up,” Schoeneman said. “We have to play our game. Our shots will fall. I still feel we’re the best team in our league. We can only beat ourselves.”
Wilkins could only shake his head when informed about Schoeneman’s number. He knew that a team shouldn’t lose when one girl has more than 20-20 vision.
Sub-varsity: North Salinas won the junior varsity contest 43-33 despite 12 points from Gilroy’s Breanna Mah. The Mustang freshmen won 34-19 as Laura Steele and Angel Senior had seven points apiece.
North Salinas (49)-Lugo 9, Klug 3, Cano 1, Mathews 12, Dacpono 5, Sanchez 11, Hill 6, B. Abbott 2, G. Abbott 0. Totals 21 2-7 49.
Gilroy (35)-Tablias 0, MacAvoy 0, Schoeneman 21, A. Spellman 1, L. Spellman 0, Wilkins 5, Solorio 0, Preeshl 4, Silveria 4, Magill 0. Totals 13 8-12 35.
NS 14 10 14 11 – 49
Gilroy 10 6 10 9 – 35
3-point goals: NS, Mathews 2, Lugo, Klug, Dacpono. GHS-Schoeneman.
