Live Oak continues to make history with the strong season it has
had this year.
Live Oak continues to make history with the strong season it has had this year.
The most recent chapter was wrapped up Wednesday night when No. 6 Live Oak defeated No. 11 Milpitas 59-45 in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division 1 playoffs to mark the first ever CCS win.
It is only fitting that coach Brett Paolucci, a history teacher at Live Oak, should be the one to guide the Acorns into uncharted waters.
“We knew they were going to come out and do a lot different things defensively against us,” Paolucci said. “We saw the full court press, the 1-2-2 three-quarter and the 3-2 zone. It was just a matter keeping our composure and attacking the basket.”
The Acorns, who have been unsuccessful in their six CCS games the past two decades, found a way to change that by beating Milpitas, which is coached by Steve Cain – the winningest coach in CCS. Cain has 593 wins in his 24 years at Milpitas.
Live Oak (21-6) will try to knock off second winningest coach in CCS when it plays Joe Chappell and the No. 3-seeded Salinas Cowboys in the Division 1 quarterfinals 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Santa Clara High School.
Even as Live Oak fans formed a line outside the Acorn gymnasium, the anticipation for the game was high. Many fans had to wait 10 minutes outside the gym in the cold night air to enter. But the packed house was not disappointed with the high-flying in-your-face action that characterizes Live Oak basketball. The Acorns improved to 7-1 at home this season.
The ESPN highlight of the game was the two-handed monster dunk by Miles Curley on the outlet pass with 2:32 left in the game. Bert Wong made a perfect inbounds throw on the opposite side of the court, and Curley hauled it in with the expertise of a receiver in one of the Acorns’ favorite press breakers. Curley put it down and was fouled for the three-point play.
“I called the timeout and could tell they were going with the full court press,” Paolucci said. “When we see everyone up like that, we know what to do. Bert gave Miles a picture-perfect pass. Miles set up his guy. And it couldn’t have been any better than that.”
The Trojans (13-13) got within nine and appeared to possibly have the momentum to make a run down the stretch. Curley’s dunk put an end to any hopes to that measure, giving the Acorns a 55-43 advantage.
“We knew they were going to come out pressuring,” Curley said. “It was a good outlet. I got it and threw it down.”
But Milpitas kept the pressure on, hitting an immediate field goal to cut the lead to 10.
“I was still woried about the outcome of the game,” Paolucci said. “The dunk was great to see. It got the crowd really pumped up, and the team picked it up from there. That kind of put them (the Trojans) in panic mode. They had to come down and force up shots.”
The Trojans had only three players to score – Julian Conyers (21 points), J.D. Adams (15 points) and Jeff Kruskamp (nine points).
“We were a little fatigued,” Cain said. “Eric Jackson was out with a flu. Now you got a sophomore starting at guard.”
Conyers was able to get some easy putback buckets early in the game and forced Live Oak to make some adjustments. He had a pair of threes in the game and had a one-handed dunk off a steal in the fourth quarter.
“Julian Conyers is a great athlete,” Paolucci said. “He is very active going to the basket. He doesn’t have to be totally squared to the basket to shoot. He is a hard guy to contain. Miles (Curley) and David (Chappell) did a good job on him. He is going to get his points.”
Defensive specialist Jeff Yeung gave Trojan backup point guard Brian Matsuno fits as he brought the ball up. The Trojans didn’t have a lot of turnovers, but were forced into a lot of quick shots.
“We knew they were big so we wanted to pressure them,” Cain said. “We tried to pressure their guard, but they did a smart thing on their part by pressuring our point guard instead.”
Having Conyers bring up the ball helped disrupt the Trojan offense, Paolucci said.
“We wanted to force them to have Julian Conyers bring the ball up, which forces them out of their offense,” Paolucci said. “We tried to keep the ball out of Brian Mutsuno’s hands and force Julian to try to create for himself.”
“In the second half, we talked about having a lot of good help-side defense,” Paolucci added. “He would penetrate but he would not dish off. Those guys were not looking for him to dish off. They get one shot and we get the defensive rebound.”
Kruskamp, a strong football player who signed a scholarship with Oregon State, was another player the Acorns had to shut down.
“He’s a great athlete,” Paolucci said. “We knew he would be active underneath. He uses his body well.”
Live Oak spread the wealth amount eight players. Curley had a game-high of 23 points. Joel Wright had nine points. Maciek Bratkowski, Drew Pearson and Wong each had six points and key blocks in the game. JV stars Doug Porras and Braden Goodere were brought up to get some CCS experience.
Wong and Yeung moved the ball around nicely creating plays for each other. Wong had some nice looks at the basket on the baseline.
“We’ve been telling Bert to be more aggressive with the ball inside,” Paolucci said. “He did that tonight. He dribble penetrated, dished off and had some key shots. Once he attacks the basket, he has a good first move. He just has to continue doing that.”
Live Oak started off the game shooting the outside shot. Curley set the stage for the game by dumping in two of his three treys in the first quarter. Wright also had two three-pointers in the game.
“I had the open shots,” Curley said. “I was feeling good so I let it go. It is our game plan to get the open looks and hit them.”
“We played really well as a team,” Curly added. “We came out fired up, and that is what we have to do on Saturday.”
The Acorns attempted just seven free throws as opposed to the the 21 they shot against Salinas.
“They had big guys that kept rotating,” Cain said. “They got the boards on us. They went to zone a few times, and we got impatient and couldn’t move the ball around.”
After a three-pointer to start the game off, Live Oak gained a 7-2 advantage. Salinas came back to take a lead with 3:40 left in the first quarter. Live Oak had a 16-13 lead at the end of the first, but Milpitas cut that to 26-25 at the half.
The lead changed hands a couple times at the start of the third quarter. With about six minutes left in the third, Live Oak took the lead for good.
The Acorns were able to pull away with a 7-0 run at the end of the third quarter. The run was started when Bratkowski towered over a defender and got the offensive rebound – one of his eight boards in the game.
He dished it off to Wright for a three. In addition to his two blocks, Bratkowski also had a two-handed dunk amount traffic in the second quarter.
“We needed someone to play defense,” Bratkowski said. “So that is what I wanted to do.”
“He been a presence for us inside getting some key rebounds which we needed for a physical team like that,” Paolucci said. “We have been working with him on turning and facing up to the basket and attacking it from there. He is able to get a lot better looks that way and had some key putbacks.”
If the Acorns are to continue making history and to claim a CCS title, they will have to win three more games.
“If we have to play Salinas that is going to get us fired up even more,” Paolucci said. “We just need to build off this win. But there is still a lot of work to go. We got to feel pretty good about playing them because of how we handled them last time.”
In other Division 1 action, No. 7 Hollister defeated No. 10 St. Ignatius 39-37 with a last second layin by Kevin Zanella. If Live Oak can get past Salinas, they could face Hollister. But Hollister has a tough task ahead against No. 2 Serra on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Santa Clara High School.
No. 5 Fremont will go against No. 4 Bellarmine, and No. 1 Piedmont Hills takes on No. 8 Hill. In Division 4 No. 9 Palma lost to No. 8 Gunderson 59-56.
In girls Division 1 games, Gilroy defeated 65-52 No. 13 Mt. Pleasant and plays No. 12 Fremont. No. 6 Salinas defeated No. 11 Hill and plays No. 3 Aptos. No. 10 Hollister lost to No. 7 Watsonville 49-36.
Milpitas 13 12 9 11–45
Live Oak 16 10 15 18–59
Milpitas (13-13): Conyers 8 3 21, Adams 6 2 15, Kruskamp 4 1 9. Totals 18 6 5.
Live Oak (21-6): Curley 9 2 23, Yeung 1 0 2, Wright 3 1 9, Wong 3 0 6, Moquin 1 1 3, Pearson 3 0 6, Conner 2 0 4, Bratkowski 3 0 6. Totals 24 5 56.
Three-point goals: M– Conyers (2), Adams. LO – Curley (3), Wright (2).
