Vanessa Farias paced San Benito with 20 points, while Erin
Glasspool added 12 in semifinal win
MILPITAS
How do you stop San Benito guard Vanessa Farias?
That’s the million-dollar question the Gilroy Mustangs have been asking themselves all year, after the senior guard deposited a combined 38 points in two league games against the Mustangs earlier this season.
“Honestly,” Gilroy High head coach Susan Shapiro said, “this is our third time playing them and we have yet to figure out how to stop her.”
Four days after sweeping past Salinas, the Farias-led Lady ‘Balers turned back Gilroy for the third time this season in Wednesday’s Division I semifinal at Milpitas High School. Anchored by a stingy defense that caused 12 first-quarter turnovers and a dominating 20-point performance from the senior Farias, top-seeded San Benito ran past the Mustangs 50-26 to advance to the Central Coast Section championship for the second straight year.
Having now faced a pair of teams in Salinas and Gilroy this postseason – two teams the Lady ‘Balers have seen multiple times already this year – San Benito (23-4) will face off against another familiar foe in No. 3 Evergreen Valley (23-5) during Saturday’s CCS final at Santa Clara University at 6 p.m.
The two teams matched up in the final at the Dons Club Holiday Tournament on New Year’s Eve earlier this season, where San Benito routed Evergreen Valley 66-37.
But while there is a sense of relief in simply qualifying for the CCS final, as the championship bid automatically advances the Lady ‘Balers into next week’s Nor Cal playoffs – no matter what the outcome on Saturday – there is still one more game to be played in the section tournament.
“There’s still pressure, pressure to win,” said Farias, who scored 13 of her 20 points in the second half Wednesday. “We’ve got to study our opponent and we’ve got to make sure we do not come out like we did in the first half of this Gilroy game.
“In this Gilroy game, we came out real flat.”
Both teams, in fact, struggled to find a foothold early on. As each team showcased their defensive strengths – San Benito opened with a man-press, while Gilroy implemented a triangle-and-two – the two rival schools were knotted at 2-all after more than four minutes had elapsed.
But San Benito’s Erin Glasspool broke the tie when she buried a 3-pointer, then followed it with a three-point play just more than a minute later, as the Lady ‘Balers closed the opening period on an 11-2 run.
“Every time we’ve played Hollister so far, they’ve come out hot,” said Gilroy’s Lindsey Foster, who led the Mustangs with a team-high eight points. “But I think we kind of came out flat. Obviously they wanted it, and we wanted it as well, but I just think we didn’t do some of the things we needed to take care of tonight.
“They capitalized on our mistakes and just ran with it.”
Although the 13-4 first-quarter lead set the tone for San Benito, Shapiro said it was the Tri-County Athletic League’s leading scorer that was the difference in the end.
“I think Vanessa Farias caused us problems,” Shapiro said. “We slowed her down in the first quarter, and you know, we just broke down and we’re a young team.
“This was an experience we didn’t expect to have, but we feel blessed for having it and we’re very thankful to be a part of it. But we’ve got to be able to stop the big-time ball players, and she threaded us like a needle tonight.”
After Gilroy got baskets from Chelsea Hill, Foster and Ashley Lambert during a second quarter that saw the Mustangs open a 2-2-1 full-court press and keep pace with San Benito to the break – Gilroy trailed 26-18 at halftime – the Lady ‘Balers took over in the second half and finished the game on a 24-8 tear.
“The 2-2-1 definitely slowed us down in the second quarter,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “We were making some tight passes and they did a nice job of getting some deflections.
“But in the second half, the girls really put pressure on them. They were attacking the basket, moving the ball, and once those 3-point shots started falling, it really opened up the game.”
While both teams struggled early on at the start of the third quarter – there were a combined four points and six turnovers between the two teams through five minutes of play – Gilroy gained an edge in momentum when Lauren Rhodes was fouled on a made basket. Although she missed the and-1 free throw, Foster was there to corral the rebound and pocket the put-back, cutting San Benito’s lead to 30-22 with 2:56 left in the third.
But Farias took over from there. Scoring 11 of her points over the next eight minutes, Farias sparked an 18-2 San Benito spurt with everything from deep 3’s to mid-range jumpers to driving lay-ins.
“When you play a team a third time it’s harder, because they probably know everything about you,” Farias said. “But I feel in a way it’s a good thing for us, or it’s an advantage, at least. We know them more, we know what they’re capable of doing and we know what we’re capable of doing.”
“In the CCS tournament, we raise the bar.”
Glasspool finished with 12 points, nine of which came from long distance, while Gilroy’s Rhodes and Hill finished with four points apiece.
While San Benito will continue on in the postseason, the Mustangs complete their year at 18-11, and will return the majority of its lineup next season with just two seniors graduating.
And now, they have a strong CCS semifinal foundation to build off of.
“We’re gonna look to take the whole thing next year,” Shapiro said.
“We have a lot talent and we’re gonna be solid the next four years.”
Notes:
San Benito shot 35 percent (20 of 57) from the field, 5 of 7 from the line … Gilroy shot 24 percent (9 of 38) from the field, 7 of 15 from the line … The Lady ‘Balers committed 17 turnovers, while the Mustangs committed 29 … San Benito had defeated Gilroy in two league games prior to Wednesday – 56-41 on Jan. 16 and 40-29 on Feb. 11 … No. 3 Evergreen Valley defeated No. 2 Carlmont 54-50 in Wednesday’s other semifinal match … The Lady ‘Balers defeated Carlmont in last year’s CCS championship.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
GILR 4 14 6 2 26
SANB 13 13 12 12 50
Gilroy (26): A. Lambert 1-2 0-0 3, E. Costa 0-5 2-2 2, L. Foster 4-12 0-0 8, L. Rhodes 2-2 0-1 4, S. Nou 0-5 3-4 3, C. Hill 1-4 2-6 4, M. Sosa 1-5 0-0 2.
Three-point goals: A. Lambert 1.
San Benito (50): K. Russell 1-5 0-0 2, L. Adamek 2-8 2-4 6, M. Halstead 4-8 0-0 8, V. Farias 8-18 2-2 20, E. Glasspool 4-8 1-1 12, J. Guerrero 1-3 0-0 2.
Three-point goals: V. Farias 2, E. Glasspool 3.
