Fresh off receiving a little motivation Saturday in the form of a 63-44 victory against league rival Gilroy, the San Benito girls basketball team got an added boost on Sunday.
On Saturday, after No. 6 Piedmont Hills defeated No. 3 Evergreen Valley 58-41 at Milpitas High School, Piedmont Hills head coach Ian Tippett provided the following nugget to David Kiefer of the San Jose Mercury News.
“I thought if we won this one we’d have a really good shot at making it into the finals,” Tippett told Kiefer in Sunday’s edition of the Mercury News.
It may not seem like much, but the team that stands in Piedmont Hills’ way of making the finals is the second-seeded Lady ‘Balers, which cruised past No. 7 Gilroy in Milpitas.
My take is that it’s probably not the best idea to provide a higher seeded team with bulletin board material.
To fill in the holes, Tippett believed that if Piedmont Hills defeated Evergreen Valley – which they did – they’d have a “really good shot” at making it to the Central Coast Section Division I finals, subsequently beating San Benito in the process.
A “really good shot” isn’t necessarily stirring images of a Joe Namath-like guarantee, but it’s certainly more than if Tippett hadn’t said anything at all, as it suggests his Piedmont Hills squad has the edge in Wednesday’s semifinal round.
It also hands the respect to Evergreen Valley, and not San Benito.
Piedmont Hills, with a 23-20 all-time record in the CCS, will enter Wednesday’s contest with experience.
San Benito, after shellacking Gilroy on Saturday and now armed with a juicy quote from Sunday, will enter Wednesday’s contest all the more fired up.
A lack of respect? It certainly sounds like it.
n I understand that I’m still the new guy in the neighborhood, but why not implement an Open Division for the Central Coast Section basketball playoffs?
The CCS has an Open Division for football, which allows the powerhouse teams like Serra, Valley Christian, Bellarmine and Mitty to play amongst themselves, and allows others to join the party if they see fit.
But why, and I’m speaking in terms of boys basketball, is every large school thrown into one playoff-bracketed pot?
Serra defeated San Benito Saturday 76-48, while in the following game at Independence High School, Bellarmine beat North Salinas 75-31.
An Open Division works in football. It seems to level the playing field considerably. Why wouldn’t it work in basketball?
n Congrats to the four San Benito wrestlers who’ll be southbound this weekend towards Bakersfield for the CIF State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena.
Junior Davila (112), Josh Ramirez (145), Fernando Lucatero (152) and Buddy Barraza (215) each took second place in their respective weights, and will be off to the state meet on Friday.
Although San Benito didn’t crown any individual champions, they did finish in second place overall as a team, and unlocked Criteria No. 1 for assistant coach Pat Dunn to dye his hair red and head coach Matt Olejnik to chop 16 inches of his hair off.
Here’s to hoping they keep their word.
n If you were present for day one of the CCS Wrestling Championships, you likely witnessed some bizarre theater in the heavyweight quarterfinal match between Monta Vista’s Graham Paterson and Sequoia’s Brian Newell.
In the waning seconds of round three, Paterson pinned Newell to advance to day two. But after Newell popped up off the mat in protest, claiming Paterson had bit his ring finger, the Sequoia heavyweight was awarded the bout after a close inspection by the official.
Monta Vista protested the match, but to no avail. Newell advanced via disqualification and finished sixth, while Paterson was DQ’ed from the tournament.
n Spring has sprung at San Benito and Anzar, and we’ll be kicking off season previews in the upcoming weeks for all the spring sports.
