Gilroy
– For three quarters Thursday night, the Hollister boys’
basketball team couldn’t figure out the Gilroy zone.
Gilroy – For three quarters Thursday night, the Hollister boys’ basketball team couldn’t figure out the Gilroy zone.
But when they did, the Haybalers entered a zone of their own.
Trailing by three at both halftime and the end of the third, Hollister finally knocked down its open shots in a dominating fourth quarter and beat back the Mustangs’ upset attempt with a 49-38 victory at GHS.
“Our kids faced adversity and they came through tonight,” Hollister head coach David Kaplansky. “I think Gilroy just ran out of gas in the fourth.”
League MVP Kyle Sharp, despite being double- and triple-teamed, led the Haybalers with 26 points and 10 rebounds. For awhile, though, the senior post was Hollister’s lone source of offense.
Usually a potent group from outside the arc, the ‘Balers (16-2/1-0 TCAL) missed nine consecutive 3s from midway through the first quarter to halfway through the fourth.
“They came out to stop us with the zone and I think that surprised us,” Sharp said. “But one of the reasons it killed us is because the 3s weren’t coming down. It took us awhile, but then we got it figured out.”
The 3-pointers never really came – the ‘Balers finally hit one more in the fourth, but that was it. The key was getting the ball inside and either drawing a foul – Hollister attempted 22 free-throws in the fourth – or popping it out and hitting the open mid-range shot.
“We had it figured out for awhile, and then just seemed to get complacent,” GHS head coach Bud Ogden said. “We just broke down a bit down the stretch. And they made a few key jumpers when they had to, and we didn’t.”
For the Mustangs (11-8/0-1 TCAL), led in scoring by Jeremy Teschera and Calvin Kretz (9 points each), the game simply got too sloppy. They were able to get away with nine turnovers in the third, when both teams struggled.
But eight more turnovers in the fourth proved to be too many. Gilroy totaled 25 for the game.
Many of them came after the ‘Stangs took their largest lead of the game. By the end of the first quarter, Hollister led 18-12. But their high-powered offense was held to just four points in the second and just six in the third. At one point, the ‘Balers went nearly eight minutes without scoring.
“We played some awesome defense for most of the game,” Gilroy center Mark Kennedy said.
After the Mustangs went up 31-26, though, Hollister tore off on a 10-0 run that turned into a 19-3 run that sealed the deal. Until a last-second bucket by Dominik Wilkins, Teschera’s jumper early on was the only Mustang basket in the fourth quarter.
Three key blocks by Sharp didn’t help matters.
“Gilroy did a great job – we knew they would,” Kaplansky said. “Every team in the league wants to beat us. If they beat us, it makes their season.
“So we just have to take it one game at a time in this difficult, difficult league.”
The defending champion Haybalers are back in action Wednesday with a road trip to North Salinas, which many believe will be Hollister’s stiffest league challenger this winter.
