The Hollister High girls basketball team will be the 10th-seeded
team in the first round play of the Central Coast Section Division
I playoffs.
The Hollister High girls basketball team will be the 10th-seeded team in the first round play of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.
The Balers travel to No. 7 Watsonville Wednesday at 7 p.m. The winner plays Piedmont Hills on Saturday at Leland High in San Jose in the quarterfinals at 2:45 p.m.
The Pirates have the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. Mitty, the top-ranked team in the section, is seeded first and has the other bye.
It’s a coincidence that Hollister (16-10) matches up with Watsonville (14-11) since the Wildcats and Balers met in the first game of the season Nov. 23. Watsonville won that game 39-29 at Mattson Gym.
“We didn’t have Sarah Groman then,” said Baler head coach Richard Silva. “And now we have Jaime Hall to help us on the boards, too. We’ll have a much bigger lineup. Rebounding will be the key. We can’t give them second and third shots. And we need to get to the free throw line. We didn’t do that in the first game.”
In that first meeting, Baler guard Gina Caianiello had 16 points before fouling out with four minutes to go.
“Gina had 16 out of our 29 points,” said Silva. “We need to get her more help scoring.”
The Balers can’t be too confident following last Thursday’s 36-point drubbing at Notre Dame.
“Notre Dame came out quick and didn’t let us run anything,” said Silva. “Our players were in awe because they were playing Notre Dame. We can’t be like that.”
Silva plans to change things defensively against Watsonville.
“We’re going to mix up our defenses more,” he said. “Watsonville is a scrappy team. We have to check their three-point shooters and handle the ball. They’ll press us the whole game. They’re quick.”
The Wildcats play in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
