Gilroy
– There’s no place like home for the playoffs.The Gilroy boys
and girls basketball teams each have home games for the Central
Coast Section Division 1 playoffs that begin Wednesday.
Gilroy – There’s no place like home for the playoffs.
The Gilroy boys and girls basketball teams each have home games for the Central Coast Section Division 1 playoffs that begin Wednesday. Fourteen teams are in the boys bracket, which means that No. 1 Oak Grove and No. 2 Piedmont Hills get first-round byes. Fifteen teams are in the girls bracket, which means No. 1 Carlmont gets a bye.
The Mustang boys got a No. 3 seed, and the girls drew No. 8. None of the coaches were particularly upset by the seeds.
“We thought we should get No. 2, but we want to play right away anyway,” GHS coach Bud Ogden said. “We beat three common opponents (that Piedmont Hills lost to). They were the only team to beat Oak Grove. But they lost the second game by 40 (actually 73-35). Still, a first-round home game is better for us.”
The Gilroy girls open the doubleheader at Bob Hagen Memorial Gym at 5pm Wednesday when they face Homestead. The boys take on Silver Creek at 7.
Quarterfinal and semifinal boys games are at Independence High Saturday and Feb. 28. Quarterfinal and semifinal girls games are at Milpitas the same days. The finals are March 3 at Santa Clara University’s Leavey Center. The girls final is at 6pm with the boys to follow at 8.
Gilroy enters the boys playoffs playing its best basketball of the season.
The Mustangs (19-7) dropped their first two Tri-County Athletic League contests and then won nine of 10, losing only to league champion Palma.
“We’re playing better and bigger,” Dirks said. “This is one of the highest seeds we have had in a long time. I like the bracket we’re in. This is our third season and we start fresh.”
Silver Creek brings a 12-10 overall record into the game. The Raiders were 9-5 in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa Division and are led by double-figure scorers Matt Everly (11.7) and Billy Dick (10.5), as well as double-figures rebounder Chijoke Nwuzi (10.8).
GHS girls coach James Wilkins also thought the team might have received a higher seed, although he understood being behind Salinas.
The Cowboys’ 16-11 overall record was well behind the Mustangs’ 17-6, but Salinas won both meetings between the schools.
“I felt we might have gone a little higher,” Wilkins said. “At this point, we all have to face a tough team sooner or later. Just to be on the board is fine.”
Gilroy will have to place a tough team sooner if it gets past Homestead (14-10) in the first round. Top-seeded Carlmont awaits the GHS-Homestead winner at 6:15pm Saturday. It was the Scots who knocked the Mustangs out of the CCS playoffs last year.
Wilkins will round out his roster by moving up two girls from the sub-varsity. Freshman player Lindsey Foster and junior varsity performer Breanna Mah will both suit up for the playoffs.
Homestead is 14-10 and went 9-3 in the El Camino League, having won three of its last four games.
