Year 1 in the Tito Addison era at Gavilan wrapped up Friday and
the Rams’ men’s basketball team concluded a frustrating season with
a 59-51 loss to De Anza.
Gilroy – Year 1 in the Tito Addison era at Gavilan wrapped up Friday and the Rams’ men’s basketball team concluded a frustrating season with a 59-51 loss to De Anza.
Gavilan (6-21, 2-10 Coast Conference) finishes the season on a five-game losing streak in a season where Addison said his team was built for a learning experience.
“With the group we have here, we have a bunch of guys who didn’t have a whole lot of court experience,” Addison said. “It’s tough for them to play against good teams in a tough conference.”
In the season finale, the Rams trailed 23-17 at halftime. But Gavilan started the second half on a tear.
Django Evans scored two buckets in a 8-0 run to start the half and give the Rams a 25-23 lead.
A three-point play by Evans, who finished with 11 points, gave Gavilan a 30-25 lead. De Anza responded with six straight points to regain the lead, but Jessie Lobue scored inside for the Rams to make it 32-31.
That’s when the Dons stormed ahead, using a 13-0 run to take control of the game.
Gavilan crawled back to within five points late on a Micah Jones 3-pointer and had the ball trailing 54-49 with a minute and a half remaining, but turnovers on two straight possession ending the possibility of a late comeback.
Eric Van Vliet also scored 11 for the Rams and Nick McLaurin led the team with 12. De Anza’s Aaron Buckner led all scorers with 23.
For Addison, the next challenge is using a full year of recruiting to help get Gavilan back into the role of contender.
“Next year, we’ll have guys that our coaches bring in,” Addison said. “I’ll have guys that play my style.”
The biggest challenge, Addison said, is to get guys to recognize their mistakes and improve upon them.
“To get these guys to learn from a year of mistakes is the most challenging,” Addison said. “I think they’ll be able to step up to the plate.”
