San Benito High boys basketball coach David Kaplansky wasn’t kidding when he said “good shooting” to Hyram Miskin as the junior swingman substituted out of the game late in the third quarter Thursday.
Miskin hit five 3-pointers on his way to 23 points to lead the Balers to a 78-36 win over Pioneer of San Jose in the opening round of the 33rd annual Bob Hagen Memorial Invitational at Gilroy High.
“When he gets in that zone, he’s tough,” Kaplansky said of Miskin. “He shoots well in that gym.”
Miskin scored 17 points in the first half to help San Benito (5-1) build a 33-20 halftime lead. The Balers advanced to meet Aptos in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
San Benito opened defense of its tournament title in dominant fashion on both ends of the floor. The Balers turned a 13-10 lead after the first quarter into a 51-30 lead by the end of the third.
Senior center Jacob Tonascia added 16 points for the Balers, who had 11 players score in the game.
“We had a good inside-out game tonight. That’s what I was most proud of,” Kaplansky said. “We did a good job in the paint, and I thought once we got paint scoring, it really opened up the perimeter.
“We were really unselfish today, too. The kids moved the ball, made the extra pass and I thought we got a lot of rhythm shots tonight. When you get rhythm shots, usually you shoot a high percentage. It’s nice when the guys look for each other, and today the kids played unselfish. I was really proud to be their coach tonight.”
Kevin Berticevich had seven points for Pioneer, which will play Christopher in a consolation semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
Gilroy 64, Harbor 62 – Gilroy High boys basketball coach Tim Jones said his team has worked on crashing the boards in recent practices.
That came in handy when it mattered most in the opening round of the 33rd annual Bob Hagen Memorial Invitational on Thursday.
Senior forward Tommy Cox converted a put-back with just under two minutes remaining to give Gilroy a one-point lead, and the host Mustangs held on for a 64-62 victory over Santa Cruz Harbor.
“That’s something we’ve really worked on in practice, is having our guys try to get some offensive rebounds and attack the glass,” Jones said. “We don’t have really big players, but we do have some athletic big players. We talk about being able to get to the glass and work really hard.”
Cox’s put-back gave Gilroy a 63-62 lead. Gilroy’s Travis Moulden, who scored eight points, made 1 of 2 free throws with 4.6 seconds left for a 64-62 advantage.
Another put-back from Brendan Holler gave Gilroy (3-3) a 61-60 lead with just under three minutes left. But Joseph Scalini scored underneath to give Harbor a 62-61 lead, setting the stage for Cox’s go-ahead basket.
Cox paced the Mustangs with 17 points.
“Tommy’s probably the guy we’re going to run a lot of stuff through,” Jones said. “We hope he’s our leading scorer, we hope that he’s going to be our leading rebounder. We kind of put him in all sorts of positions, and he’s still growing into that role a little bit, to be depended on for so much.”
Zach Loo had 15 points and Chris Chang scored 11 for Gilroy, which hit 11 3-pointers in the game as the Mustangs rallied from a 37-32 halftime deficit.
“We just all of a sudden got alive and things started to click, and the next thing you know we’re right back in it,” Jones said. “To me that’s a really impressive trait, (that) they just don’t give up.”
Dean Rinaldi and Joseph Scalini scored 15 points each for Harbor, and teammate Josh Benard added 13 points.
Gilroy will play Live Oak in the semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday.
Live Oak 66, Anzar 35 – Luke Laguna scored 20 points and Ardean Salvador added 10 points to lead the Acorns by the Hawks.
Live Oak built a 44-13 halftime lead and cruised to the win.
Anzar will play Harbor in a consolation semifinal at 5 p.m. Friday.
Aptos 60, Christopher 52 – The Cougars were unable to hold a 31-30 halftime lead in a loss to the Mariners.
Wyatt Rocheleau scored 17 points for Christopher, which got 14 points from Andrew Foster and 10 points from Jaysan Maolinbay.
