Even a great shooting team has its nights off. That
’s when it pays to dedicate the time and effort to a sound
defensive philosophy.
Even a great shooting team has its nights off. That’s when it pays to dedicate the time and effort to a sound defensive philosophy.
Never has that been more true than in the Live Oak High boys basketball team’s 45-34 victory over Harbor in the first round of the 24th annual Bob Hagen Memorial Tourn-ament at Gilroy High on Thursday.
Despite struggling with their shooting for most of the night, the Acorns took control of the game in the second half with a smothering defense that shut down the Pirates completely.
Live Oak held Harbor’s top two scorers, David Thomas and Django Evans, to a total of seven points.
“We really clamped down on them in the second half,” Live Oak coach Brett Paolucci said. “They have three players who are very good and that’s pretty much it. We did a good job defensively on them and I’m very happy with that. I’m proud of how the guys played tonight.”
With the win, defending tourney cham-pion Live Oak advanced to the winners’ bracket semifinals against the winner of the late game between host Gilroy and Alvarez.
Live Oak (6-1 overall) will play at 8 p.m. Friday.
Harbor will play the loser of the Gilroy-Alvarez game at 5 p.m. Friday.
In the other first round games on Thursday, Aptos edged San Benito 51-50 and North Monterey County beat Monterey 52-35.
San Benito will play Monterey in a losers’ bracket semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Friday while Aptos and North County square off in a winners’ bracket semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
In Thursday night’s game, Live Oak took narrow leads 11-9 after the first quarter and 25-24 at the half.
But the Acorns took off in the second half, building an 11-point lead on 3-pointers and a suffocating defense.
Leading by just 29-26 midway through the third quarter, Live Oak extended its lead to seven on senior forward Steve Conner’s consecutive inside buckets, then broke free on 3-pointers by senior guard Joel Wright and junior forward Matt van Keulen.
Van Keulen’s trey came with just three seconds left on the clock and staked the Acorns to a 39-28 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Meanwhile Harbor was finding it next to impossible to get the ball to its leading scorers, David Thomas and Django Evans, and managed just four points in the quarter.
Live Oak’s shooting cooled off in the fourth quarter but Harbor couldn’t get closer than seven the rest of the way.
“We were pretty cold from the outside — we were pretty cold from every-where tonight,” Paolucci said. “But I’m not so concerned with the offense. What I’m really concerned about is our defense and we played good defense tonight.”
Conner led the way for the Acorns in scoring with 11 points, while senior guard Jeff Yeung added seven, all in the first half.
Junior forward Brandon Powell, back from an injury that kept him out of action earlier in the season, chipped in six.
Live Oak is looking to repeat as tourney champions after knocking off the host Mustangs in last year’s finale to claim the title.
The Acorns are coming off a consolation champion-ship in Los Gatos High’s Wildcat Shootout last weekend.
The Bob Hagen tourney finals will be held on Saturday, with the consolation final beginning at 11 a.m., followed by the third-place game at 12:30 p.m. and the championship game set for 2 p.m.
