Los Gatos opens league play with a pair of victories
PALO ALTO >> What a difference a week makes.
One week after dropping two of its three games at the Aptos High School/santa Cruz Warriors Norcal Invitational, the Los Gatos High School boys basketball team started 2-0 in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division last week.
“League rolls around, the calendar turns and everyone understands the importance of league, and everyone puts the emphasis on being locked in,” said Los Gatos coach Nick Ward after his squad’s 44-41 road victory over Gunn on Jan. 7. “It helped getting our transfers available and now we have a full squad, outside of guys being out sick and in protocol. We’re still shorthanded, but getting two guys back that hadn’t played yet for us really helps.”
Those two players are juniors Max Houghton and Tommy Ankenbrandt, who both transferred from Archbishop Mitty. Both made major impacts against Gunn in just their second games with the Wildcats. Houghton, a 6-foot-2 point guard, scored a team-high 12 points and also had five rebounds and two assists. Ankenbrandt, a 6-6 center, also scored in double figures with 10 points and had eight rebounds and two blocks.
Los Gatos, which evened its overall record at 7-7 with the win, was missing five players from its 15-player roster in that game due to an injury or coronavirus-related issues.
The result of Los Gatos’ scheduled division game against Monta Vista on Jan. 11 was not available before this article went to press.
One thing that’s been a constant for the Wildcats this season has been the team’s defense. Entering this week, the squad allowed more than 50 points only three times this season (with a high of 63 in a six-point loss to Silver Creek on Dec. 4), and averaged 43.0 points allowed per game.
“We take a lot of pride in our defense,” said Victor Josifovski, a
6-3 junior who grabbed eight rebounds and scored seven points against Gunn, including five in the fourth quarter. “We spend more than half of our practice on it. Our coaches drill us consistently. I think we’re proud of it, and I think we’re really experienced at it.”
The Wildcats needed another strong defensive effort against Gunn, a game in which the score was tied at 29 at the end of three quarters.
But after Gunn’s Allen Rankin scored the first two points of the final period, Arya Emarlou sank
a three-pointer from the left corner with 7 minutes, 19 seconds left. The Wildcats never trailed after that, although the score remained close. Emarlou had a pair of three-pointers in the game and finished with eight points.
Gunn, which fell to 9-4 overall and 0-2 in division play with the loss, narrowed its deficit to 3534 with 5:47 remaining, but another three-pointer gave Los Gatos some breathing room 26 seconds later. Houghton nailed a trey from near the top of the key, and he also sank a floater in the key with 1:46 left to push the Wildcats’
lead to 42-35.
Two free throws by Trent Splaine with 6.4 seconds left gave Los Gatos a 44-38 advantage before a buzzer-beating threepointer by Rankin accounted for the final score. Splaine finished with seven points.
“We hadn’t won a close game against a good opponent like that, and we’ve been on the losing end of some tight games, and I think guys, they kind of just broke through fourth quarter and said hey, we have an opportunity here, let’s take advantage of it,” Ward said. “The guys hit some shots
and we got some stops when we had to.”
In the Wildcats’ El Camino Division opener on Jan. 4, Los Gatos defeated visiting Wilcox, 53-34.
Emarlou scored a team-high 17 points, including a trio of threepointers. Josifovski added 11 points, including going 3 for 3 afrom two-point range. He also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Houghton passed for a teamhigh four assists, and Ankenbrandt blocked a team-high three shots. Josifovski and Emarlou also had three steals.