Los Gatos girls turns up the heat defensively
SAN JOSE >> The Los Gatos High School girls basketball team capped a great week of defense with a 38-19 victory over host Lynbrook on Jan. 21.
The Wildcats didn’t allow more than seven points in any quarter in a defensive masterpiece against the Vikings, increasing their winning streak to 12 games entering this week.
“The effort was there from start to finish,” said Los Gatos coach Sara Quilici Giles about her team. “I think our defense is really improving, and I’m really, really pleased with it.”
After beating Leigh 58-31 on Jan. 17 and Los Altos 42-41 two days later, Los Gatos led Lynbrook 20-9 at halftime on the way to victory.
“I think it’s our grit right now,” said Quilici Giles about the reason for her team’s stellar defensive play. “Our height doesn’t hurt, of course, it’s nice to be that tall, but I think it’s just a mindset of going to get it, like going to get the rebounds and taking pride in staying in front of somebody on defense.”
Los Gatos has four players who are 5 feet 11 inches or taller on its roster.
Entering this week, the Wildcats’ only loss of the season was on Dec. 7 to Silver Creek (55-32). Los Gatos entered this week with a sparkling 14-1 overall record and 3-0 mark in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division.
The result of Los Gatos’ scheduled game against Homestead on Monday was unavailable at this article’s deadline. The Wildcats were scheduled to travel to face Wilcox this past Wednesday. and host Palo Alto on today at 6:15 p.m.
On Jan. 21, the Wildcats jumped out to a 6-0 lead, including four points and an assist by Belle Bramer, and increased that lead to 10-2 just over six minutes into the game.
Los Gatos never trailed, although Lynbrook cut the lead to
12-9 with a three-pointer by Elizabeth Cheng with 6:11 left in the first half. However, a basket by Nicole Steiner started an 8-0 run to end the half, and the Wildcats had a 7-0 run to start the second half. Los Gatos led by at least 18 points throughout the fourth quarter.
Steiner led all scorers with 14 points, including six in the second quarter. The freshman also had seven rebounds, three blocks and four steals.
Bramer added nine points, a game-high 10 rebounds and a game-high three assists. Casey Brennan grabbed nine rebounds in the win for Los Gatos.
The last four minutes of the Los Altos game, only four points were scored.
“With four minutes left, I called a timeout and I said ‘I know you guys are tired, but so are they … Whoever is the least tired on defense is going to win this game,’” Quilici Giles said.
Steiner also scored a game-high 14 points in that game, and Ashley Childers added 10 points, including a pair of three-pointers. Los Gatos trailed 17-16 at halftime.
In the victory over Leigh, Childers led the team with 15 points, including a trio of threepointers. Claire Galbo added 14
points and Bramer had 12 points.
Boys basketball
Missing three starters and having only nine players in uniform, Los Gatos High School still pulled out an impressive 53-43 victory over host Lynbrook on Jan. 21.
“We’re young and we’re learning. Just really proud of how hard we played,” Los Gatos coach Nick Ward said. “Lynbrook is a really good team and you know, you can’t take your foot off the pedal. … They hit some shots and it’s really easy to kind of just get deflated. I thought guys recovered from that, bounced back and the effort stayed consistent from start to finish. I’m really proud of how we fought and kept playing.”
Los Gatos snapped a two-game losing streak with the victory and entered this week with a 9-9 overall record and 4-2 mark in the SCVAL El Camino Division.
On Jan. 21, Los Gatos sophomore Nolan Koch scored eight of his 12 points in the first quarter, as Los Gatos entered the second period with a 17-11 lead. The Wildcats had a 25-19 advantage at halftime and 36-28 at the end of three quarters.
Lynbrook drew to within five points with 5:17 to play in the fourth quarter (38-33), but Los Gatos junior point guard Max Houghton then scored two of his nine fourth-quarter points and Lynbrook didn’t get within six points the rest of the way. A layup by the Vikings’ Jonathan Fu narrowed Los Gatos’ lead to 46-40 with 1:55 to play, but two free throws by the Wildcats’ Luke White 33 seconds later started a 7-3 Los Gatos run to end the game.
Houghton scored a team-high 14 points and also had five rebounds and two steals. Koch and Trent Steiner paced the Wildcats with six rebounds apiece. White passed for a game-high four assists.
On Jan. 18, Los Gatos fell to visiting Fremont-sunnyvale 43-30. Houghton also led the Wildcats in scoring that game with nine points. Steiner and Victor Josifovski paced Los Gatos in rebounds with five apiece.
Football
The Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-star Game will take place on Feb. 5 at Los Gatos High School at 6 p.m.
Among the players for the North team are Los Gatos’ Quinn Merritt, Yuma Raux-moriwaki, Wil Dal Porto and Nathan Yore. Other players for the North squad include Leigh’s Sam Betz, Aiden Williams and Jason Schwartz.
Game tickets are available only online at santaclaraallstar. com. Complete rosters can also be found at that site.