The game won’t count toward the standings, but you wouldn’t know that by the way the Oakwood and Sobrato players went at it Monday night nor by their faces at the end of the game.
In the Central Coast Section Sportsmanship Game—a friendly contest that kicks-off the basketball season—the Bulldogs erased a 28-19 halftime deficit and rode a 27-point fourth quarter to defeat the Hawks 63-54.
After the game, some of the Hawk players had forlorn looks about their faces, sitting on the bleachers almost in a state of shock.
The good news for Oakwood is the only takeaway from the game is the sour feeling of not playing well for a half. There won’t be playoff or overall implications from the game.
“I don’t understand what happened,” said coach Kort Jensen. “I will give (Sobrato) credit, their kids threw up a lot of shots that went in that I didn’t think that would go in.”
Meanwhile, the Sobrato players were jubilant after the game and at times, a little too jubilant during the game, causing coach Ron Vitug to tell his boys they have to keep up a business attitude on the court.
And they were business-like in the second half.
“I told them that we made our way through by aggression. Some of these players are still young, so this is their first varsity experience,” Vitug said. “… I told them, ‘don’t let those two big guys out rebound us.’”
Sophomore Jason Rhoads led a fourth-quarter surge with 10 points, including sinking five of six free throws down the stretch to help secure the win. He finished with a team-high 17 points.
The underclassmen went off for the Bulldogs, as fellow sophomore Luke Walton had 13 points and 11 rebounds in the win.
Seniors Noah Tasew and Wesley Craig added 11 and 10 points, respectively, to help in the effort.
Tasew’s shooting caught the eye of his coach.
“He showed me something,” Vitag said. “He became a dynamic rebounder and it was all contagious after that.”
The common theme for all four of the players was their second half performances.
Of their combined 51 points, 39 of them came in the second half.
The combined effort of Tasew, Craig, Rhoads and Walton was enough to fend off the lethal guard duo of Nate Schilling and Youssef Eshra who had 39 of the team’s 54 points.
Schilling led all shooters with 20, followed by Eshra with 19.
The story of the night for the Hawks, however, was not the point totals, but rather the half-to-half rebounding splits.
Oakwood pulled down 27 boards in the first half. Justin Mortenson alone had 12 through two quarters. In the second half, however, the Hawks were limited to nine boards with Mortenson adding just one more in that stretch.
“For the first half, our big guys were dominant, just dominant off the glass. The second half, they disappeared,” Jensen said.
Turnovers also didn’t help, as Oakwood had 17 give-aways in the game to Sobrato’s nine.
Jensen also pointed out the free throw shooting was at less than 50 percent for the night, as the Hawks hit 10 of 21 attempts.
Oakwood got off to a fast start, going on a 12-4 run in the first quarter after giving up a trey to Walton for Sobrato’s first points.
As the Hawks led 14-10 after the first quarter, Sobrato did it’s best to keep the game close going into the half. Oakwood, however, had a strong second quarter, going up by as many as 11 at one point late in the quarter.
The Hawks eventually went into the break with a comfortable 28-19 lead.
The third quarter things started to shift.
Oakwood’s lead got pared back early in the quarter, seeing its margin go to as few as four in the early goings but the Hawks fought back and pushed its lead back to 10 at 40-30.
Sobrato, however, kept at it, eventually trailing by seven going to the final frame.
The Bulldogs went on a 12-4 run to start the quarter, capped off with Tasew hitting a 3-pointer to give Sobrato a 48-47 lead. The Bulldogs never trailed after that point.
Mortenson tied the game with a free throw right after Tasew’s 3, but momentum was on Sobrato’s side from that point.
Sobrato will have a quick turnaround as the Bulldogs next take on Santa Teresa 7 p.m. Tuesday as part of a three-games-in-three-nights stretch that will finish up with Branham on Wednesday.
Oakwood, meanwhile, will have some time to work out last-minute kinks before traveling to Paul Spates Memorial Tournament to faceoff against Half Moon Bay to kick things off on Friday.
“Tomorrow and Wednesday, we’ve already talked with the staff about what we need to do,” Jensen said.
Read season previews of both teams in Friday’s print edition and look back for more online at www.morganhilltimes.com/sports.
