For the first time this season, the Live Oak High boys
basketball team has lost two games in a row. And, it couldn
’t have come at a worse time.
For the first time this season, the Live Oak High boys basketball team has lost two games in a row. And, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Wednesday night, the Acorns were upset by visiting North Salinas, which won in a rout by a 63-46 score on Live Oak’s home floor during its Homecoming.
Live Oak (18-4 overall) dropped its second consecutive Tri-County Athletic League game, both to rivals at the top of the league standings.
The Acorns (5-2 in league) dropped into a second-place tie in the TCAL with the Vikings (5-2 in league, 16-8 overall) behind first-place Hollister-San Benito (6-1 in league, 17-6 overall).
Hollister beat Gilroy 59-34 on Wednesday to take over sole possession of first place in the league after downing Live Oak on Friday last week to earn a share of the league’s top spot.
In the space of less than a week’s time, Live Oak has gone from the No. 12-ranked team in the Central Coast Section with an unbeaten league record to a team that may be forced to settle for an at-large berth in the section playoffs.
Acorn coach Brett Paolucci said his team just couldn’t stay with the speedy, athletic Vikings, who repeatedly beat the Acorns down the floor to the hoop and outhustled the home team to loose balls.
“We got beat bad,” Paolucci said. “We got beat in every phase of the game. We had no answer for them. We got great looking shots last night — looks inside that we just couldn’t make. Obviously, (North Salinas post players) Eric Petty and Marco Ramos had something to do with that. We were too worried about them and couldn’t make our shots.”
Live Oak couldn’t match North Salinas’ intensity out of the gate, as the Vikings sprinted to a 13-3 lead in the first quarter.
The Acorns were getting open shots but couldn’t convert and North Salinas took advantage during a 10-0 run in the quarter.
The Acorns came back on a pair of Braden Goodere buckets and a Doug Porras three-point play to pull within 13-10 at the end of the quarter, but the Vikings extended their lead out to 31-18 after two more scoring runs in the second quarter.
Senior Steve Conner sank a 3-pointer to bring the Acorns to within 31-21 at the half, but North Salinas built its lead back up to as much as 14 points in the third quarter.
Later in the quarter, Live Oak rallied to pull within 42-36 on a Joel Wright 3-pointer but two Orlando Johnson free throws gave North Salinas a 44-36 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
North Salinas put the game away on a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter to take a 55-37 lead and coasted the rest of the way.
For the second consecutive game, it appeared Live Oak ended up the victim of poor officiating but Paolucci said he had no problem with the calls despite the fact that the Acorns were outshot from the free throw line by a 30-10 margin in the game.
Petty led North Salinas with a game-high 19 points, while freshman Orlando Johnson added 16 and senior guard Mervyn Woo had 13.
Live Oak’s Conner was the only Acorn player in double figures in scoring with 13 points, and the usually high-scoring Wright was held to just six points.
Paolucci said his team is struggling with its confidence right now and must turn things around quickly to salvage its season.
“I told them the next three games are really important and not to let one game determine our season,” he said. “There’s still a lot of basketball left. We can’t let this one just sit there and affect the rest of our season. We have three really tough games. People still want to beat us and we’re still a team to beat.”
Live Oak begins the final three games of its league schedule with tonight’s 7 p.m. game at Salinas.
The Cowboys (3-4 in league) beat Palma on Wednesday and must win two of its final three games to qualify for the CCS playoffs.
Live Oak edged Salinas 49-48 in the first league game between the two teams on Jan. 27.
The Acorns will finish their league season at Palma and at Gilroy next week.
