Live Oak gets big win over San Benito following disappointing
overtime loss to Gilroy
Hollister – All of a sudden, practice the next day became a whole lot easier for the Live Oak boys basketball team.
After watching his team surrender a number of offensive rebounds as host San Benito slowly turned a tight game in its favor, Acorns head coach Brett Paolucci was busy plotting the succession of drills his team would need to rectify its problems.
“I was thinking about practice tomorrow,” said Paolucci after the Haybalers took a 48-41 lead midway through the fourth quarter. “I was thinking about all of the boxing out and rebounding drills we were going to do.”
Fortunately for the Acorns, they may have saved at least part of their later misery by turning the game on its heels. Live Oak used a late 12-0 run to eventually prevail 59-53 on Thursday.
“We just came together as a team,” said Live Oak forward Dustin Bynum. “We just buckled down. It was all about just buckling down on defense.”
Eight consecutive points by Acorns swingman Micah Jones, including two three-pointers, coupled with a swarming defense that stifled San Benito allowed Live Oak to take a 53-48 lead with 1:36 left.
The ‘Balers (7-10, 1-2 TCAL) pulled within 54-53 when San Benito forward Brian Haggett found Todd Janisch with a cross-court pass for a catch-and-shoot three-pointer with 53.2 seconds remaining, but Live Oak hit 5-of-6 free throws in the waning seconds to secure the victory.
Live Oak’s Jones led all scorers with 17 points, including four three-pointers, while Bynum scored 15 points and Brandon Greene added 12.
Acorns senior Ivan Silveira had eight points and was in on the front end of the play-of-the-night. With the score tied at 48 with 2:28 left, the point guard used a behind-the-back dribble to lose his defender at halfcourt and then fired a no-look pass to Jones for a three-pointer that gave the Acorns the lead to stay.
Forward Daryl Baladad led San Benito with 11 points, while Haggett scored 10 and grabbed seven rebounds. Janisch scored nine points off the bench and center Dean Wilkins finished with six points and a team-high eight rebounds.
The ‘Balers jumped out to a 11-6 lead when forward Kevin Burley found Wilkins for a lay-up on an inbounds play. But the Acorns (10-10, 2-1 TCAL) came right back, using three consecutive three-pointers to go up 15-13. By the time the dust settled, San Benito grabbed a 20-17 lead on Haggett’s second three-pointer of the quarter.
What was confounding to San Benito head coach John Becerra was why his ‘Balers couldn’t master Live Oak’s attacking defense with the game on the line when they were able to effortlessly expose it in the game’s early stages.
“In the first half, we punished them when they went on that press,” said Becerra, “but in the end, we kind of gave it to them. The difference was just all of a sudden, we were worried about losing the game. ‘I don’t want to make a bad pass. I don’t want to take a bad shot.’ We just became a little tentative.”
As a team, the Acorns shot 17-of-22 from the free-throw line, a performance that Bynum said was necessary to avoid running ‘Sweet Sixteens’ in practice.
“It’s a punishment if we don’t make our free throws,” said Bynum, who helped save the team from the sprints by making 9-of-11 from the line. “It’s pretty brutal.”
Following the team’s disheartening overtime loss to Gilroy on Tuesday, Paolucci was just glad his team walked away with the victory.
“I wondered, ‘How were we going to show up?'” said Paolucci afterwards. “I was real happy. Every win is an important win in league. We never lost our focus. I have to tip my cap to this team. They never give up.”
Gilroy 57, Live Oak 52; Tuesday Night
n By Ana Patejdl
Staff writer
Morgan Hill – The Live Oak boys basketball team was a fraction of a second from emerging victorious from an emotionally draining back-and-forth battle with Gilroy Tuesday night.
Ahead 50-48 with the final second ticking down, players on the Acorn bench edged toward the sideline, prepared to rush the floor and Live Oak fans had already erupted into victorious cheering.
But a whistle with two-tenths of a second left changed all that.
In the final possession, Gilroy missed two three-pointers. On the second miss, Mustang guard Dominik Wilkins grabbed the rebound under the basket and was fouled as he went up for the final shot between a clump of Live Oak defenders.
Wilkins made both free throws to tie the game at 50 and force overtime. Although Live Oak had another four minutes to make the win its own, the emotional damage had already been done. With the wind taken out of their sails, the Acorns made just one basket in the extra period and fell 57-52.
After the game, even Live Oak head coach Brett Paolucci was exhausted.
“(My team) played hard for four quarters in a physical game,” said the coach, who expressed displeasure that a call just before the buzzer changed the game.
“I don’t like to use the refs as an excuse, but in a situation like that, you let the kids play.”
Live Oak, which entered the game coming off a win over 11-3 Tri-County Athletic League favorite Palma, fell to 1-1 in league and 8-9 overall. Gilroy improved to 11-4 and 2-0 in TCAL.
Senior point guard Ivan Silveira led the Acorns with 14 points, six steals, five assists and four rebounds. Micah Jones (13 points, 8 rebounds) and Brandon Greene (11 points, 3 steals) and Dustin Bynum (8 points) also contributed for Live Oak. Frankie Tomasetti’s 19 points led the Mustangs (11-6, 2-0).
