Bulldogs flex mental strength in putting away Royals 57-42;
Acorns beat San Jose by 20
MORGAN HILL — There was but one pressing question to ask Ryan Williams, after the tacitly intense 6-foot-4 senior forward dropped 17 points to help Sobrato stomp Overfelt 57-42.
Why did it take so long — 17 minutes, 44 seconds to be exact — for the Bulldogs to take command?
It’s no mystery, really. They were outplayed for most of the first half of Friday’s Santa Teresa Division game. Sobrato took its first lead, 33-30, when Chris Bradley kicked the ball out to his brother, Bryan, for a deep 3-pointer with 6:16 left in the third quarter.
“They came out with a lot of pressure and were getting all the rebounds,” said Williams, who made 7 of 11 from the field. “We had trouble adjusting to them, matching their intensity.”
So the Bulldogs didn’t try. Instead they slowed the pace of the game with extra passes and panic-free ball-handling. They did leave Overfelt on the hook early on, but the visiting Royals tired quickly.
Sobrato (7-5 overall, 2-0 league) scored 13 of the first 15 points in the second half and never looked back.
“It seemed like we were in a hurry at first, and we weren’t hitting open shots,” Bulldogs coach Lee Washington said. “We missed a lot of layups in the first half. We just had to settle down.”
Patience has become one of Sobrato’s biggest strengths. There are 14 games in the Santa Teresa schedule, and the Bulldogs aren’t trying to win them all at once.
If there is one thing they learned from last winter, when Sobrato backed into a winner-take-all regular-season finale against the Independence 76ers, it’s that cooler, more collected teams rise to the top in the Santa Teresa — or, as Washington called it, “the grind.”
“You have to take it one game at a time,” Williams said. “That just goes back to preparing each day, getting ready for the next opponent.”
The Bulldogs visit defending co-champion Independence next (7 p.m. Wednesday), not that they were looking past the Royals (5-7, 0-2).
“Our goal is to beat every team and win league,” Washington said. “We don’t want to need help at the end of the season like last year. We want to control our own destiny the whole way. I think coming up short last year made this team stronger.”
Junior guard Daniel Caampued kept Sobrato’s attention with his 13 points and four assists. Caampued and Ron Gomez sank two treys apiece in the first half, as Overfelt twice built leads of eight points.
Williams netted seven points in the third quarter, including two layups off high-low feeds from Chris Bradley and Pierre Hemphill, and Howard Kwong pulled down three of his seven rebounds in the fourth quarter to keep the Bulldogs in control.
Kenny Mounteer, who finished with seven points, made a free throw with 1:41 remaining to give Sobrato its largest lead, 54-38. By then, the Bulldogs had checked in their 12th player.
“It helps when you can rotate guys all night,” said Chris Bradley, who dished half a dozen assists. “We can have a fresh five new guys in and still do well while keeping the starters fresh. We’re going to need that every game.”
Live Oak stomps San Jose
Fueled by the frustration of a five-game losing streak, Live Oak took its anger out on hapless San Jose.
Michael Schreiber totaled 15 points, four rebounds and two steals, Dominic Leach tallied 11 points plus nine rebounds, and Nathan Seifert netted 11 to help the Acorns earn their first victory of 2010 by score of 54-34.
The host Acorns moved to 4-8 overall and 1-1 in the West Valley Division. They didn’t waste time putting away the Bulldogs (3-7, 0-2), who were outscored 29-14 in the first half.
