The Sobrato boys basketball team advanced to the second round of the Blossom Valley Athletic League tournament Tuesday with a 68-50 win over Yerba Buena.
The Bulldogs advance to play Leigh on Wednesday in San Jose.
Sobrato had to overcome 23 turnovers on the night, but did it with solid defense and winning the battle for the boards.
“When we looked at our must-win battles, that was the one battle at halftime where we were getting our butt kicked,” said coach Lee Washington. “It wasn’t just halftime. We started the game, in the first three minutes we had four turnovers. … We were excited for this game and this opportunity — it’s been a while since we were in this tournament. Once our nerves settled down a little bit, we stopped airmailing those passes and we got back to fundamentals.”
The Bulldogs’ two leading rebounders — Karl Mann and Tim Givens — had more rebounds between them (20) than Yerba Buena had combined (17).
Washington said he was very happy with how his boys rallied after making a mistake to limit the damage.
“I played a lot of basketball in my career, so I know mistakes our bound to happen. For them, I was more proud with how they responded to those facts,” Washington said. “Alex Minagawa made a couple of errors, but he hustled back, got rebounds and did some things defensively that shows a true competitor’s attitude.”
The turnovers threatened to make the game close in the second quarter, when Yerba Buena went on a 14-3 run to close out the half.
“We just rushed the passes and we tried to push the ball up and make passes that really weren’t there,” said Max Mosgrove.
The Aztec Warriors pulled to within four to start the third quarter when Sobrato found its footing.
“We knew that they had the champion’s mentality. We’ve seen them comeback in the Bulldog Chase when they had large deficits, and come back to win some games and come back and make it close,” Washington said. “We knew they were going to compete and give us their best shot.”
The Bulldogs went on an 11-0 run to retake a 15-point lead.
After that, Yerba Buena never got closer than nine points.
Mann and Mosgrove led all scorers with 16 points, with Kristian Maldia adding 14.
Mann added 11 rebounds and four blocks, with Mosgrove pulling down eight boards.
Sobrato’s road in the tournament is going to get tougher on Wednesday, when it travels to Leigh for a 7 p.m. tip.
Leigh is the Mt. Hamilton League champion, going 14-0 in league play and 23-1 overall this season. The two teams played on Dec. 10, with the Longhorns winning 78-64.
“We go game-by-game. We always think this game is the most important game. Tomorrow will be another really important game,” Mosgrove said. “We just have to keep working hard.”
Sobrato hasn’t played back-to-back games since December 28, but the team said it’s ready to go.
“We’re always ready. We love a good challenge and tomorrow will be a good challenge,” Mosgrove said.
