Following his team’s 63-52 victory over North Salinas Friday
night, San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter called this upcoming
week for the Baler boys’ basketball team the
”
biggest week of the season.
”
And the second-year head coach wasn’t at all trying to be
dramatic. At 5-2 in the TCAL, San Benito will square off against
Gilroy (5-2) Wednesday night on the road, before hosting Palma
(4-3) on Friday night in Hollister.
HOLLISTER
Following his team’s 63-52 victory over North Salinas Friday night, San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter called this upcoming week for the Baler boys’ basketball team the “biggest week of the season.”
And the second-year head coach wasn’t at all trying to be dramatic.
At 5-2 in the TCAL, San Benito will square off against Gilroy (5-2) Wednesday night on the road, before hosting Palma (4-3) on Friday night in Hollister.
The two contests are sure to jumble the current league standings. Although Salinas (7-0) remains undefeated with a two-game lead in the loss column — and appears primed to earn the league title — runner-up in the TCAL is still very much up in the air between San Benito, Gilroy and Palma.
This week’s games should go a long way in deciding that, though.
“It’s a week that defines us, basically,” Carpenter said Friday.
San Benito is currently in second place in the TCAL, owning the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Mustangs following its 79-75 victory on Jan. 7. But the Balers did lose to third-place Palma 65-48 on Jan. 12, keeping the current league standings, as well as this week’s set of games, rather interesting.
This week’s two-game slate will also be reflective in postseason positioning, especially Wednesday’s matchup at Gilroy, as both schools compete in Division I. The Balers still need one more win in their last five games in order to officially qualify toward the playoffs, though.
“Overall, we’ve improved a lot since the start of the season,” said Carpenter, whose team opened the year with a 1-6 record but have since won nine games, including six of its last eight and nine of its last 12.
“We’ve gotten better, and that’s a sign of a team that’s stayed together,” he added.
Becoming playoff-eligible was perhaps the last thing on the team’s mind seven games into the season, but the Balers will have that chance Wednesday in Gilroy — not to mention the chance of earning the season sweep, which hasn’t been accomplished since the 2007-08 campaign.
The Mustangs enter as winners in four of their last five games, with a 91-65 loss to Salinas — in which they trailed 31-13 after the first quarter — as their only blemish.
Defense will be the focal point for the Balers in Wednesday’s game, though, especially after Gilroy scored 99 points against Alvarez last Friday, and especially after Mustang Cameron Yawary nearly single-handedly defeated San Benito by himself last time.
The Gilroy guard dropped 42 points against San Benito on Jan. 7.
“You should never let one player beat you, but he almost did,” Carpenter said.
January’s four-point win for the Balers showcased a rather impressive offensive performance, too, as San Benito shot 49 percent from the field, 50 percent from behind the arc, and 22 of 34 from the line.
“And we almost lost. It shows that we could not stop them,” said Carpenter, who previously coached at Gilroy from 1982-92.
Although it was a win, the 75 points San Benito allowed to Gilroy on Jan. 7 was the most given up all season; it allowed 65 points each during its most recent defeats to Salinas and Palma.
Carpenter said the team’s tough defensive approach and ball-control offense allows the Balers to compete against any team. But whether it allows San Benito to replicate the Jan. 7 outcome against Gilroy, or perhaps even provide a winning result against Palma, which it hasn’t beaten since 2005, remains to be seen, of course.
Said Carpenter, “Both games are tough.”
San Benito will visit Gilroy Wednesday night and host Palma on Friday night. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.
