SBHS follows last week’s loss to North Salinas with a 67-47 win
over Salinas. Sharp leads the way with 38.
n By Joshua Staloch
Sports Editor
Hollister – The San Benito High boys basketball team’s mood in practice this week has been somber following its 75-68 loss on the road to North Salinas last Wednesday. It was a game that saw the Balers shoot poorly from the outside in addition to being outperformed on the boards.
All they needed to get going on Tuesday at home against the Cowboys was get a little confidence going. When Eric Davis drained a long-range jumper on Hollister’s first possession, it set the tone for things to come as the Balers again and again hit their outside shots en route to a 67-47 win to put them at 2-1 in Tri-County Athletic League action and 17-3 overall.
“Obviously, our guys were kind of low in practice since the North Salinas game, and it showed in practice” said Hollister head coach David Kaplansky. “But, once we made a couple of jumpers right out of the gate, the guys really started to feel confident.”
After Davis’ jumper to start things off, Kyle Sharp went to work down low and before the Cowboys knew it, they were down 8-2 and had to take a timeout to talk things over.
Salinas’ Adam Krydar came out firing after the timeout with slashing moves into the lane and, within a minute and a half, had brought the Cowboys to within two points at 8-6. Once Krydar had gotten Hollister’s full attention on defense, teammate Kelly McCarty took over, giving his team a 9-8 lead before Hollister’s Danny Isaacson nailed a three-pointer. McCarty came right back with a drive to the bucket before getting the ball back a couple of possessions later and hitting again from close range. By the end of the first quarter, McCarty had 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting and his team had a 19-15 advantage.
But Salinas didn’t get to enjoy the lead for very long.
Sharp cut the Salinas lead to two on Hollister’s first touch of the second after rebounding his own shot and putting it back in. Darryl Baladad, who was really hustling on defense all night long, hit a long jumper after a Salinas turnover to tie the score at 19.
That’s when things started to get away from the Cowboys.
Sharp, in addition to creating all sorts of havoc in the paint both offensively and defensively, started to get his outside shot going as well. So did Vince Bautista, Steve Huerta and Alex Huerta.
Also, the Balers completely shut down the potent offensive game of McCarty. After not missing a shot on his way to 10 points in the first, McCarty managed only four points on 11 shots the rest of the game. It was a solid team effort on defense that silenced McCarty’s offensive voice. When Sharp wasn’t altering his shot in the paint, Dean Wilkins, Baladad or Isaacson were in his face making it impossible to find a good shot.
“To hold (McCarty) to two field goals in the second half says a lot,” Kaplansky said. “He’s got a great game and, for us to shut him down the way we did was very impressive.”
San Benito really started to run away with the game in the second half and, with about three minutes left in the contest, they were up 59-42. That’s right about when Kyle Sharp put the game away with a thunderous dunk after getting the ball in the post. He simply dropped a foot into the paint from the right side, spun in front of the basket, took off and flushed it home.
“Kyle’s obviously playing at a very high level right now,” Kaplansky said. “But tonight was a good game for us. We did a good job of getting buckets in transition and we also were able to knock down shots from the parameter.”
Note: Hollister’s freshman squad beat the Cowboys 40-32 following an outstanding defensive performance from David DeMateo. Brian Haggett led the team in points with 15 and Marty Bueno added 7 as the Balers improved to 2-1 in league play.
