Stifling defense combined with an 18-point first quarter led the Live Oak girls basketball team to a 45-28 win over James Lick Friday night.
Amy Gunther led the charge with 12 points, including 10 in the first half to give the Acorns a lead they wouldn’t yield. Gunther also pulled down eight rebounds in a game where she didn’t have to play much in the second half.
“We could have gone six or seven deep tonight and kept on scoring and scoring if we left our primary players in,” said Live Oak coach Mike Kiefer. “From that perspective, I don’t think the deeper part of our bench would have the ability to grow. Getting them on the floor and letting them learn and play and make mistakes and learn from that, I think it was more beneficial than winning by 30 points or more.”
Julieanna Blotz followed with 11 points, including six points in the first quarter as Live Oak’s post players shutdown James Lick on the inside.
“Julie is coming along. She’s been very impressive,” Kiefer said. “…She’s starting to know that she’s a very strong young woman and when she gets inside, not a lot of people are going to stop her.”
Fayth Lyon also had a good night, finishing with eight points, including two key 3-pointers to start the second and third quarters.
The trio of Blotz, Frances Giba and Kristi Martinez-kisso combined for 13 of the team’s 40 rebounds. Christine Emuka came in to add six more rebounds as Live Oak’s bigs nearly shutout the Comets for the entire second half.
“Our posts we treat them as a team. If one gets the points one night and the others don’t, if all our points come from one or from the collective group, I’m happy with that,” Kiefer said. “What I like most is that even if (Martinez-kiss) isn’t getting her looks or her shots aren’t dropping, she’s still battling.”
After leading 26-18 at halftime, Live Oak came out on a 12-1 scoring run. It wasn’t until after the 6-minute mark that James Lick put together a run to finish with six points for the quarter.
“The one benefit is when we do get deeper into our bench, we do lose a lot of offense, but we work really hard on the defensive end,” Kiefer said. “The majority of our practice is spent on defense, expecting that we have to limit them to one-and-dones; 10 eyes on the ball and taking their lanes away.”
In the quarter, Live Oak forced nine turnovers as the Comets committed 29 for the game.
In the fourth quarter, the Acorns didn’t have much in the way of offense, but the defense came through once again holding James Lick scoreless for most of the way.
The Comets’ best shooter Carol Carrillo—who had a game-high 14 points—was shutout in the final frame. It came down to two shooters who hadn’t scored to that point who finally broke the shutout.
Live Oak will have quick turn around as the Acorns host North Monterey County 7 p.m.
