Acorns rebound after loss in season opener
The Live Oak basketball team may have found just what it needed during Wednesday’s 80-42 win over visiting North Salinas. An outside shooting game.
The Acorns made seven three-pointers in the game. An unofficial score keeper reported Live Oak was 7-for-15 from three-point land.
“We’ve been working on that a lot in practice especially during warmups,” said Live Oak coach Brett Paolucci. “Joel (Wright)is our main shooter on the team. It is encouraging to see other guys contribute behind the arc. They were patient and had good looks.”
In addition to Wright’s three treys, Miles Curley, Steve Conner, Cuthbert Wong and Scott Moquin drained three-pointers.
Live Oak has seen few zone defenses this season. But the team was able to take advantage of the 2-3 put on by North Salinas (8-10, 0-2 TCAL).
“Teams are going to zone us so that (shooting the three) has got to be a threat,” Paolucci said. “If we’re hitting from outside, we can draw teams out of zone and put them back into man. We’d seen North Salinas play so we knew they would throw both at us. They’re a very athletic team, and we had some problems with them defensively.”
Live Oak (16-3, 1-1 TCAL) has already established itself as one the most dominant post teams in the area. An outside game will make it even tougher for the opposing defense.
Joel Wright began the brigade by knocking down a three to start the game.
In the second half, Chris Deem came up big by drawing a charge to help stop the Vikings drives.
Everyone on the Acorns’ roster contributed offensively on the scoreboard. Live Oak spread out its scoring fairly evenly over the four quarters.
“We were shuffling guys in and out, and whoever was in was playing hard,” Paolucci said. “It was an overall team win.”
It was one of the few games this season that twins Nick and Dave Garcia have been in at the same time.
The pair combined in the fourth quarter to give North Salinas a bad case of double vision. They had a couple of steals and worked the brotherly bond by unselfishly dishing off to each other.
Wong had a couple chances to dunk in the final minutes of the game, but his attempts just fell short. Drew Pearson put down a two-handed on a free throw rebound.
From here on out, there will not be any games that will be won by as wide of a spread. It will take some good ball playing to come up with the TCAL league title down the stretch.
“No matter who we are playing in this league, we have to go into it knowing each game is going to be a battle,” Paolucci said. “We wanted to make a little statement after letting one slip out of hands Saturday.”
Live Oak lost the league opener at Hollister after a buzzer beater. The Acorns will play Salinas, who lost to Hollister 85-76 in a tournament earlier this year, in a game that will come down to the wire.
“It is a tough place to go in and play at,” Paolucci said. “They have a great starting five. They have the top guard in the area (leading scorer Drew Sanchez). They got some size, not height – big bodies inside.”
In other games around the league: Hollister 50, Gilroy 44; Palma 52, North Salinas 46; Salinas 69, Gilroy 63.
JV result: The Live Oak JV team (14-1, 2-0 TCAL) defeated North Salinas 53-33. Brandon Goodere led the way with 14 points, and Nick Firato had 11 points. Brandon Powell, who had five points gave the Acorns a strong defensive effort. Even though the Acorns won by 20 points, coach Dean Davis said his team will still need to play better to beat Gilroy and Hollister.
North Salinas 9 17 10 6––42
Live Oak 21 21 19 19––80
North Salinas (8-10, 0-2) –– Woo 1 0-0 2, Petty 1 1-4 3, Drummer 3 5-7 11, Estrada 1 1-2 4, Ricca 1 0-0 2, Cordner 3 2-6 8, Williams 1 0-0 2, Jordan 1 0-0 2, Nicks 3 2-4 8, Totals 15 11-23 42.
Live Oak (15-3, 1-1) –– N. Garcia 2 0-2 4, Conner 3 0-0 7, Mayor 2 1-1 5, Yeung 3 0-0 6, Wright 4 0-0 11, Wong 2 0-1 5, Curley 7 1-1 16, Chappell 2 0-0 4, Moquin 2 1-2 6, Pearson 2 0-0 4, D. Garcia 2 0-0 4, Deem 3 0-0 6 Bratkowski 1 0-1 2. Totals 36 3-8 80.
