San Benito jumps out to an 8-0 lead but the Mustangs pull away
at the end for a 53-48 win in TCAL opener
Hollister – In the opening minutes of Friday night’s TCAL opener at San Benito High, the Haybalers looked like a team that could do no wrong.
But things turned around quickly as the Mustangs bounced back from an early 8-0 deficit, took control of the game with intense defensive pressure and went on to take the 53-48 victory.
“I thought it was just a great effort by both teams,” said Gilroy head coach Kari Williams. “It was good basketball and anyone who came tonight saw a great game.”
The contest started with a flurry of big plays from San Benito’s Trisha Lee. She hit from 10 feet out the first time she touched the ball and then, after a Baler stop on the defensive end, she drove right down the middle of the lane and scored in traffic.
Jaime Hall took over from there as she scored on two-straight possessions to give her team the 8-0 advantage and force the Mustangs into using an early timeout.
When Gilroy took to the court after that timeout, they went right to Katherine Hussey, who responded with a bucket underneath and then another following a Haybaler turnover. Moments later, Kristen Campos scored to bring the score to 8-6 and swing the game’s momentum in her team’s favor.
The Mustangs tied the game and capped an 8-0 run of their own when Amanda Link, who battled down low all game long with Hall, got a score under the basket.
San Benito’s Crystina Osborne stopped the bleeding and put her team back in front with two-straight scores for the Balers. But Jessica Groppe hit a shot just before the buzzer to tie the game at 12.
Gilroy turned up its offensive pressure in the second quarter. Campos hit Groppe with a great pass that resulted in an easy bucket to start the quarter. Groppe scored again on the Mustangs’ next possession and then the Balers turned the ball over again, resulting in yet another Groppe field goal, pushing Gilroy’s advantage to 18-12.
“We had 26 turnovers tonight. That’s way too many,” said San Benito head coach Tom Dean, whose team found itself down 32-22 at halftime on Friday. “It’s something that we’ve been working very hard on but we haven’t gotten there yet.”
The Balers came out swinging in the third quarter. Jaime Hall was getting good looks inside and converting them into points. Osborne was causing turnovers on the defensive end and, by the end of the quarter, the Balers were down by only seven at 39-32.
The noise generated by both the home and visitors sections late in the fourth reached a feverish pitch as San Benito started to close the gap. Ariel Romero got things started with an outside bucket before Hall started to turn it on in the paint.
The team was having some success at beating Gilroy’s press in the fourth and, with less than five minutes to play, the Balers found themselves down by only three points.
But the Mustangs weren’t going to let this one slip away. Hussey once again made San Benito pay with her relentless drives into the lane and Kendall Costa did a good job at the charity stripe in the game’s closing moments and Gilroy was able to hang on for the win.
“You’ve got to give Gilroy credit, they’re a good team,” Dean said. “They’re very disciplined and they handled the ball very well. It’s going to be a tough season in the TCAL.”
See page B2 for the game’s box score.
