After taking advantage of a limping Hollister-San Benito team to
vault back into the playoff picture earlier in the week, the Live
Oak High boys basketball team had an opportunity to move up the
league standings against first-place North Salinas Thursday night.
But the Vikings weren
’t having it. Unable to match up with the Viking big men in a
scenario eerily similar to the first meeting between the two teams,
Live Oak fell by a 71-48 score.
After taking advantage of a limping Hollister-San Benito team to vault back into the playoff picture earlier in the week, the Live Oak High boys basketball team had an opportunity to move up the league standings against first-place North Salinas Thursday night.
But the Vikings weren’t having it.
Unable to match up with the Viking big men in a scenario eerily similar to the first meeting between the two teams, Live Oak fell by a 71-48 score.
“We got ran all over the place,” LO coach Brett Paolucci said. “They just had too much firepower for us.”
Leading by an 18-15 score after one quarter, the Acorn boys were outscored 46-17 over the next 16 minutes of play as North Salinas exerted its will on the contest.
Paolucci said he was hoping his team might catch the league-leading Vikes unprepared, but that was a no-go. North Salinas improved to a perfect 6-0 in TCAL play with the win.
LO’s Matt van Keulen was the lone bright spot for the Acorns, pouring in 18 points to lead his team in scoring.
It was the second straight outstanding effort for the senior sharpshooter, who also had a game-high 22 points in LO’s 50-42 win over the Balers on Tuesday night.
Both teams were missing personnel in that contest, with Paolucci out due to the birth of his first child and Baler senior Kyle Sharp out due to injury.
Now, LO (11-9 overall, 2-4 in league) must win at least one of its final four games in an ultra-competitive TCAL to qualify for the playoffs.
In two of those league games, LO will play rematches against rivals Gilroy and Hollister-San Benito (which should have Sharp back), against whom their only two league victories have come.
Next week, the Acorns host Salinas on Wednesday before playing at Palma on Friday.
LO girls basketball
A game but outmanned Live Oak High girls basketball team made visiting Hollister-San Benito sweat plenty Wednesday night.
But the Acorns couldn’t quite get over the hump in a 42-32 loss.
Despite missing center Afshawn Chakamian due to injury, LO got Baler center Jamie Hall in early foul trouble and took advantage of her absence to rally.
“We really focused on keeping Jamie Hall off the boards and that frustrates them,” Perkins said. “If we could just get our offense going we could play with any team in the league.”
After trailing by as many as 13 in the first half, the Acorns came back behind the play of Colleen Henningsen and Mattie Borges to pull within 22-20 with 6:02 to play in the third quarter.
But Hall bulled inside for four of her game-high 13 points to blunt LO’s rally, and the Balers added four free throws to finish the quarter on an 8-0 run to build their lead back to 10. Live Oak never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
“Give all due credit to (Live Oak coach Jeff Perkins),” Baler coach Tom Dean said. “That’s a young team but they’re getting better.”
LO was led by Henningsen with 10 points and Borges with nine.
LO fell to 4-14 overall, 1-4 in TCAL, while the Balers improved to 14-5 overall, 3-2 in TCAL.
