It may have come down to details such as improved defense,
better rebounding and more free throws, but it certainly didn
’t hurt the Live Oak High girls basketball team that senior
center Melissa Llanes had a torrid scoring skein at the Mount
Pleasant tourn-ament last week.
It may have come down to details such as improved defense, better rebounding and more free throws, but it certainly didn’t hurt the Live Oak High girls basketball team that senior center Melissa Llanes had a torrid scoring skein at the Mount Pleasant tourn-ament last week.
Llanes heated up during tourney play, dumping in 47 points in three games for the Acorns, including a season-high 17 to lead her team to its first victory of the season — a 39-36 win over James Lick on Thursday.
“It was great to see her do that,” Live Oak coach Richard Silva said. “Man, we could use that all season.”
Live Oak’s victory over James Lick allowed the Acorns to advance to the tourney’s consolation final, a huge leap for the team that Silva said is beginning to find itself after struggling through its first two games. Despite winning just one of its three games in the tourney — Live Oak (1-4 overall) lost its first-round game to Santa Teresa 36-33 in overtime and fell to Los Altos 42-36 in the consolation final — Silva said he was encouraged by the level of effort his team produced.
“There were definitely some positives,” Silva said.
In the win on Thursday, Silva said the Acorns began showing some of the things he had been stressing in practice.
“(James Lick) had a bunch of good 3-point shooters and (Live Oak) finally started to identify the good shooters and the hot hand,” Silva said. “We were getting to the free-throw line and rebounding. We had just 12 turnovers, which is a big improve-ment. If we can do those four things, we’ll win some games. The big thing is to give yourself a chance to win in the fourth quarter.”
Even Wednesday’s loss to Santa Teresa gave Silva reason to smile. Trailing by 10 points at one point, the Acorns rallied to tie the game and send it into overtime before falling. Llanes had 16 in the loss.
“Even though we lost, we played pretty well,” Silva said.
And, in the consolation finale on Friday, Live Oak again would not go gently. Down by 15 at the half to Los Altos, the Acorns came all the way back to within one point and had opportunities to go ahead but missed the front end of consecutive one-and-one free throw chances that finished their comeback hopes.
“I was proud of the way the girls came back,” Silva said. “They didn’t give up.”
Silva also praised the play of Amanda Lytle and Megan Smart during the tourney.
Today, Live Oak travels to Monterey to play the host Toreadores at 7 p.m., a game that is sure to test the Acorns’ improved play.
