Lady Mustangs can’t hang with Archbishop Mitty in 74-35 loss
SAN JOSE – For one quarter, the Lady Mustangs showed they could run with the best.
For one quarter, the Gilroy girls basketball team was just as good as the top seed Mitty machine.
For one quarter, the garlic hoopsters had a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, they could upset the Lady Monarchs of Archbishop Mitty.
But after keeping pace in the opening quarter – ending it down 19-12 – Gilroy finally began to succumb to the relentless Mitty full court press in Wednesday’s CCS Division I Semifinal contest at Leland High School. When the final buzzer sounded, the Lady Mustangs looked up at the scoreboard and saw the lopsided 74-35 result in favor of Mitty. But there was no shame in it, whatsoever.
“It looked like we were going to give them a run for their money and I think we did. That first quarter, we played so hard and we did a lot of good things,” said head coach Kari Williams, who guided Gilroy to two playoff wins in her first season. “We missed a couple of baskets and they made a couple in a row and they kind of got that spread going and it’s tough. They are a great basketball team. They are well-coached and they have a system and they’re good.”
In a game-time surprise, junior center Sarah Hoeft – who slammed head first into the wall in the third quarter of Gilroy’s quarterfinal win over Fremont and was taken to the hospital – was in the starting five like she had been for most of the year.
“I felt really comfortable during the game,” said Hoeft, who energized her teammates from the get-go and finished with a team-high 11 points. “In the first quarter, it felt like we were unstoppable, that we could do everything that they could do. And then in the second quarter, we got too confident that we started to slack.”
But what a quarter it was. Mitty had buried its opponents early and often – including taking a 32-3 lead on No. 8 Milpitas in the quarterfinals en route to a 74-18 triumph. The Lady Mustangs, however, would not let that happen – trading buckets and even taking the lead for a brief second.
Senior forward Jenn Olvera scored Gilroy’s first points by sinking two free throws to make it a 2-2 ball game. Then, junior guard Sarah Miller drained a jump shot off an inbound pass from senior teammate Danell Dow to give the Lady Mustangs a 4-2 advantage.
Mitty guard Monique Coquilla quickly recaptured the lead for her team by draining a three-pointer. After two more Lady Monarch buckets stretched the gap to five, Hoeft took a pass from senior guard Laura Hennessee, hit a short jumper inside, and was fouled – but did not sink her free throw.
A trey via Mitty guard Cecilia Russell-Nava pushed the spread to six, but Hoeft answered with a bank shot on the other end and then, following a Hennessee steal, drained another jumper to close the gap to two. The score was evened at 12 apiece when sophomore Michelle DiFiore scored a putback bucket off a Hennessee miss with 1:31 remaining.
The Lady Monarchs then went on a 7-0 run to close out the opening quarter and continued to build on their lead in the second quarter – outscoring Gilroy 22-6 for a comfortable 23-point advantage at the break.
“I think we knew we didn’t really have a chance in the beginning so we decided to come out strong and have some fun and give them a game. That’s what we did,” Dow said. “If it wasn’t for them, we’d be in the finals and we’d have a banner. Private schools, if it wasn’t for them, we would have the division title.”
While it was private power Notre Dame-Salinas – the T-CAL Champions – during the regular season, it was private power Archbishop Mitty in the playoffs – dampening the Lady Mustangs’ hopes.
“We’re taking it really well,” said Hoeft, following the season-ending loss. “We’re kind of sad it’s our last game, but I know the younger classmen will practice in the summer and tryout for next year and our seniors, we’ll totally miss them and all.”
Mitty – which will play Salinas in the CCS Finals since the T-CAL Lady Cowboys upset No. 2 Piedmont Hills 43-39 in the other semifinal game – built its lead to 63-26 by the end of the third quarter and cruised through the final eight minutes.
“You’re always going to cheer for your T-CAL members so I’m going to say, ‘Go Salinas, give’em heck’ and I want them to,” said Coach Williams, prior to the start of the Salinas-Piedmont Hills game.
The Lady Mustangs finished up their season with an impressive 18-12 overall record – warranting first team All-League honors for Hennessee, second team All-League honors for Hoeft, and All-League honorable mentions for Olvera and Dow – who was also named to the All-Sportsmanship Team.
“I’m already sad. They had me in tears in the locker room. They’re going to be tough to replace. They’re my first seniors. They were awesome,” said Coach Williams of her seniors. “I couldn’t ask for better seniors and I think my underclassmen learned a lot from them and I learned a lot from them. They’re going to make us better. They led us through this season and we have a lot more to do to top this season next year.”
TALK ABOUT TOUGH: Hoeft was calling for Gilroy’s D-H, Dow-to-Hoeft, long bomb play even though it was the very same play that landed her in the hospital only two days earlier.
“After hitting the wall, she was begging me to let us run the play again that she ran into the wall with. She’s like let’s run this. It’s our DH, Dow-to-Hoeft, play. A long run down court,” Coach Williams said. “I mean look at her, she came, she turned, she shot, she rebounded, she played hard, she stole the ball. She’s a junior so we have her coming back.”
DIFFERENT DUTIES: Hennessee, Gilroy’s leading scorer and team leader, was shut out for the first time this season. But there was a reason for it.
“Of course, they’re always going to guard your leading scorer and Laura, as a point guard, has so many duties. She has to get the ball down the court. She has to set up the play. She has to rebound,” Coach Williams said. “She had a little bit different a duty for me tonight and that was to get back and if you can watch, they really didn’t get nearly the lay-ups. It wasn’t 32-3. The reason why it wasn’t 32-3 was because Laura was getting back stopping them from getting those open lay-ups and that was her job for me tonight.”
FIRST-YEAR SUCCESS: Coach Williams took over the Gilroy girls program this season in replace of the departed Tim Jones – a teacher at Gilroy High who was in attendance for every playoff game cheering his girls on. Last season, the Lady Mustangs made it into the quarterfinals under Coach Jones. This year, Coach Williams maintained the winning tradition and pushed the Lady Mustangs one game further. Next year, Gilroy is looking for even more.
“I learned a lot about coaching basketball. I learned a lot about the girls. I learned about the system. I learned about everything. We kind of all learned together and I already have got some ideas for next year,” Coach Williams said. “We take from a team. I watch Mitty play and I told the girls in the locker room, ‘OK, we’ve see that, that’s what we’re going to become.’ So we don’t stand in awe of them, we go, ‘OK, what do they do good and what do we already do good’ and we’re going to build off that and we’re going to be the team that everybody comes in and is terrified of.”
