It’s true the Gilroy High boys’ basketball team doesn’t enter the 25th annual Bob Hagen tournament riding a tidal wave of momentum.
The Mustangs are coming off a 61-32 loss to Archbishop Mitty and one of their top players, sophomore transfer Cameron Handy, is taking some time off to tend to personal issues.
It’s also true there’s also plenty of silver lining to the situation, though.
“It sounds strange, but I actually walked away (from the Mitty game) feeling pretty good about the thing,” GHS head coach Bud Ogden said. “I think games like this benefit us in the long run. We’ll be OK.”
After all – with a schedule that includes Mitty and a pair of loaded fields at the Aptos and Valley Christian tourneys – the Mustangs have still managed a 5-4 record to start the season.
Not bad for a team that was 0-7 heading into last year’s Bob Hagen Tournament. Not bad – but apparently not great, either.
“Yeah, it’s definitely better,” said senior guard and co-captain Calvin Kretz. “But we’re not at all satisfied with what our record is. We should be 7-2 right now.”
Kretz and other teammates cited close road losses to Aptos and Seaside as evidence of frustration. The frustrating part, they said, is that the offense and defense never seem to be clicking at the same time.
For example, the Mustangs – after working on defense in practice for several days – came out in the Mitty game and held the explosive Monarch offense to just eight points in the first quarter.
On the other hand, Gilroy scored just two in the opening frame.
“The defense had been down a bit, but the beginning of that last game we showed how good it can be,” Kretz said. “But we just couldn’t get anything to fall.”
GHS center Ryan Chisolm, the team’s leading scorer (10.1 ppg), said the Mustang D has arrived and he’s confident the offense will join it soon.
“The shooting is not there yet, but it’ll come,” the junior said. “When that comes together, we’ll be good.”
What better time to start than during your home tournament?
“It’s a huge tournament for us,” said senior forward and co-captain Vince Mitre. “A lot of alums from last year are going to be there looking to see if we’re any better.
“So we want to get out there and prove a point. A lot of people probably don’t think we’re that good.”
Starting with tonight’s game against 7-1 Monterey, the Mustangs have a chance to prove otherwise.
“It’s big,” Chisolm said. “We need to come out and be ready to go against Monterey. We need to get into the winners’ bracket and move on from there.”
According to Ogden, it’s a stiff – but not impossible – challenge.
“We have a shot of winning it,” he said, “but we have to play better than we have all season.”
