In Monday’s Sportsmanship Game against Oakwood, Sobrato trailed by as much as 15 in the third quarter.
But the Bulldogs flipped a switch and slowly chipped away at the lead to ultimately come away with a 59-53 win.
That is the kind of fight that coach Ron Vitug hopes to see out of his boys all season.
Luke Walton scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half of the game as the Bulldogs outscored the Hawks 27-10 in the final quarter of play.
Walton came through with a key stretch of eight points in the third quarter, where he drained four free throws as well as hitting seven points in the fourth quarter of
the game.
“I’m expecting the leaders to bring along the bench players and keep them engaged,” Vitug said. “… The leaders I picked them for a reason.”
Sobrato trailed 29-18 at the half.
“It gets their confidence up that they can do stuff,” Vitug said. “My expectations are that they be able to look at defenses and be able read and react to any situation.”
Vitug said many of his players this year were just youngsters last year and now they’re a year older and ready to get to work.
Still, there are a few fresh faces that Sobrato will rely on this year.
“We’re a little bit more senior-laden but we still have a young core,” Vitug said. “Getting the message across to them, now they see our trademark should be never give up.”
Krubeal Negash—who came aboard varsity late last season—really got things going in the fourth quarter, when he scored nine points.
“He looks to be one of the leaders in the upcoming season,” Vitug said.
Vitug gave Negash credit for changing his game from largely being a guy who shot 3s to someone who can use his movement to create problems for defenses.
Along with Negash, Vitug said the team needs to be able to recognize defenses and react to them and be willing to improvise when necessary.
“They need to be able to survey the floor and not dribble with their heads down and not going through the robotics of we have to run the plays that coach says,” Vitug said. “No. What we’re teaching this year is you run the play as a guideline, but there’s lots of stuff that comes off of each play.”
Also getting his feet wet on the varsity level is sophomore point guard, Terence Tate who looks to come off the bench this year but should see some good minutes.
“He did a lot of good work over the summer and I’m counting on hum to be a quite leader and a guy who helps solidify the second line.”
He’s the only sophomore Vitug brought up this year.
Starting at the point will be Santiago Jimenez who saw plenty of action last season.
The Bulldogs struggled through a down season last year, winning one game in the Santa Teresa Division and three games overall in 2014/15.
“We fought to stay in B League because we knew we’d come out a lot better,” Vitug said. “I think that with the reps and we stress super hard work and try to never give up.”
Vitug said the boys are a year older and ready to go for the 2015/16 season.
This year, the Bulldogs will have a tough nonleague schedule, going to the Bog Hagen Tournament next week at Gilroy, playing at the Prospect Tournament and closing out with Santa Teresa and Woodside before kicking off league play against Evergreen Valley on Jan. 6.
Vitug is also in his second year as the headcoach of the team and said he has some good help with him this year.
Vitug was forced to take a leave of absence for heath reasons last season, but said this year he’s ready to go with
good assistants.
Sobrato will next play Live Oak in a rivalry game on Dec. 9 starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Sobrato gym.
