The Acorns hold the Balers to just 11 points in the first
half
Live Oak moved into a share of second place in the Tri-County Athletic League with a 54-45 victory over league rival Hollister in front of a packed crowd at the Live Oak gym during homecoming Friday night.
The Acorns (18-4, 4-2 TCAL) got off to a quick start by limiting the Balers (18-5, 4-2 TCAL) to just 11 points in the first half.
“We still got along way to go,” said Live Oak coach Brett Paolucci. “It was a great win. Emotions were high with our home coming. It was a little revenge from last time.”
The Acorns have won two out of three matches with the Balers this year after dropping the TCAL opener with a buzzer beater against Hollister.
“We didn’t do the little things last time,” Paolucci said. “We watched film this week to see how we could clean those up. I told the guys to watch how they played and to watch the intensity. We came out with a lot of intensity.”
“We didn’t do anything different,” Paolucci added. “We just refined a few things to allow us to compete. We wanted to force their sophomore guard (Eric Davis) to his left and apply a little bit of pressure on him because there offense also goes through him.”
Hollister was greeted by the capacity crowd with a course of boos after they took the court.
“It was good to get a win against them,” said Scott Moquin, who had five points for the Acorns. “The fans really helped us. They were loud and excited.”
Both Live Oak and Hollister are trailing Salinas, who hasn’t lost a game in league yet.
“If we want to have a chance to win this league, we have to win big games, and that was a big game,” Paolucci said. “We’re hoping for some help, because Salinas is playing really well. This is the time of season we have to step it up and play our best ball.”
The Acorns consistently denied the first pass into the post. Live Oak started off with man and then switched off to zone defense. It worked as Kyle Sharp was held to 10 points (three in the first half).
Miles Curley once again was the lucky player charged to man him. Sharp did hit a couple of jumpers over Curley, but for the most part Curley was able to frustrate him.
“Holding Kyle was the key,” Paolucci said. “We didn’t want to double team him. We just wanted to come out and play defense. We did a great job getting in front of him and not letting him get the ball. He’s only a sophomore, so we got two more years of that guy.”
Sharp had a couple three-pointer and 18-foot jumper attempts in the first half, but couldn’t get anything to fall. The lack of concentration showed as he airballed a free throw.
“I was cold out there,” Sharp said. “The first half killed us, but we cut the lead in the second half. Live Oak plays good defense. They can guard the post well.”
The Balers took their only lead of the game at 2-3 in the opening minutes when guard Broc Sondgroth drained an outside shot.
“We really stressed their 2-1-2 defense in practice the last two days, and we scored off of it two times right away to start. If they zone us, we know what to do. If they man us, we also know what to do.”
For the second game in a row, Live Oak held the opposing defense to single digits in each of the first two quarters.
“We did some zone and man last time against them,” Paolucci said. “If they are going to come out with intensity and play for four quarters, the defense is going to work. Defense will win games.”
At the half, Live Oak had worked the lead to 25-11.
“We came out stagnant in the first half and didn’t have continuity in our offense,” said Hollister head coach David Kaplansky. “Live Oak came out aggressive and took us out of our game. We dug ourselves a deep hole and we couldn’t get out.”
Hollister was just 3-for-12 from the line in the first half. Kaplansky’s clipboard took some serious abuse being kicked and slammed as the animated coach tried to motivate his team as he has done so successfully this year.
Sondgroth kept the Balers in the game with his game high of 19 points and five three-pointers. He dumped in back-to-back treys in the third third quarter to help bring the Balers to within 33-26. With three seconds left in the quarter, Miles Curley finished an inbounds play that calmed the Balers down briefly.
The Acorns came up with a pair of big dunks in the game to help break up momentum swings. Curley, who had 16 points, came up with a steal in the third quarter and took it the other way, putting it down with one hand to give the Acorns a 29-14 advantage.
In the fourth quarter, Maciek Bratkowski hammered home a two-handed dunk to put the Acorns up 39-27. Shortly after, Joel Wright drained a three to give Live Oak its largest lead at 44-27.
“We came out with intensity in the first half,” Wright said. “We kind of weathered their storm in the second. Sometimes we tend to get tired and let our guard down.”
Live Oak has had trouble maintaining leads in the second half. Both Hollister, Gilroy and Palma were all able to make runs against Live Oak.
“I am proud of how the guys were able to keep there composure,” Paolucci said. “We made some big shots down there at the end.”
A sign of a good team is being able to get contributions from people that aren’t factored into the equation. David Chappell had 10 points and did a good job on the boards as well.
“He hadn’t been scoring for us recently,” Paolucci said. “He did a good job taking it to the hole and hitting the seven or eight footers. David is one of our best leapers on the team. We want all five guys to play great defense no matter who is in.”
Live Oak still has some work to do to get to its full post potential. But the team made some positive strides toward that goal against Hollister.
“We’ve been stressing with our post guys to move their feet and seal their man,” Paolucci said. “Our guards have been doing a good job of getting them the ball. We are able to kick it out when we draw the defense.”
Live Oak will play at North Salinas on Wednesday before facing Salinas Friday night at home in what may be the biggest game of the year.
Hollister 6 5 15 19–45
Live Oak 14 7 10 19–54
Hollister (18-5, 4-2): Sondgroth 5 4-6 19, Sharp 4 1-4 10, Butler 3 4-6 10, , Davis 0 4-6 4, Rubio 1 0-0 2, Zanella 0 0-2 0. Totals 13 13-25 45.
Live Oak (18-4, 4-2): Bratkowski 4 0-0 8, Pearson 1 2-3 4, Curley 7 2-4 16, Wright 1 0-1 3, Chappell 4 2-2 10, Deem 1 0-0 2, Conner 1 0-0 2, Moquin 2 1-2 5, Garcia 0 2-2 2, Mayor 0 2-2 2. Totals 21 10-14 54.
Three-point goals: LO-Curley, Wright. H-Sharp, Sondgroth (5) .
