The San Benito High boys basketball team started Thursday’s
rivalry game at home against the Gilroy Mustangs like they were
ready to rebound from a tough loss to Live Oak earlier in the week
after jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead.
Hollister – The San Benito High boys basketball team started Thursday’s rivalry game at home against the Gilroy Mustangs like they were ready to rebound from a tough loss to Live Oak earlier in the week after jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead.
But The Mustangs kept pace with the Balers in the game’s early goings and then took control of things in the second half to get the 61-50 win and improve to 2-4 in TCAL play and 13-11 overall.
“They’re obviously a much different team without Kyle (Sharp), said Mustangs head coach Bud Ogden. “They gave us all we could handle without him. They played with great intensity and they really had us screwed up with their defense in the first half.”
The Balers started hot with a three-pointer from Eric Davis and then a score underneath by Ian Whiteley.
Gilroy’s Ryan Chisolm broke the ice for the Mustangs with a nice shot from the outside and the back-and-forth game began.
The Balers were making the most of good looks at the basket from the likes of Davis and Vince Bautista in the first quarter but Gilroy was able to stay right with them, despite some intense defensive pressure, thanks to its hard work on the boards.
The Mustangs got multiple second chances early as their post players controlled the offensive glass.
The Balers were up 12-10 at the end of the first quarter but a turnover to start the second resulted in a score for Gilroy’s Steven Good at the other end to tie things up. The Mustangs took the lead for the first time in the game shortly after when Jeremy Teschera cashed in on two free throws.
But the Balers reclaimed the lead at the end of the quarter when Kevin Jones hit a pair of shots from the charity stripe with about 20 seconds left, giving Hollister the 24-22 edge.
The second half belonged to the Mustangs though. The duo of Chisolm and Kretz were able to pick apart the Hollister defense that had given the Mustangs so much trouble in the first half and, by the midway point of the final quarter, had built a 50-43 lead.
San Benito’s battled hard in the second half, which was highlighted by the play of Jones and Colin Parker, both of whom continue to get valuable minutes with Sharp out, but couldn’t close the gap down the stretch.
“I felt that the effort was definitely there and I thought the kids did a nice job putting pressure on the basketball,” said Hollister head coach David Kaplansky. “I really thought we improved from Tuesday’s game.”
Not only has Sharp been out recently, the Balers have had another hole to fill in the paint with the absence of Henry Taylor. The good news is that Sharp is a definite go for next next Wednesday’s home game against top-ranked North Salinas and Taylor will be back in the lineup for the team’s February 16 game against Palma.
It’s going to be an interesting final couple of weeks for the Baler boys basketball team.
