Bulldogs maul Grizzlies, 65-50, following overtime loss to San
Lorenzo Valley, 56-51
Morgan Hill – The Sobrato Bulldogs boys basketball team rebounded from a tough loss on Tuesday against San Lorenzo Valley to defeat the Gunderson Grizzlies, 65-50 Thursday night at home.
The Bulldogs’ guards played well and the team had a complete offensive effort to top the Grizzlies.
Mubarik Abdullahi led Sobrato with 23 points eight steals and four rebounds while teammate Marqus Crawford added 23 points, three steals and two rebounds in a game in which the Bulldogs led the entire way.
“Today we played with energy and heart,” said Crawford. “We had a pretty good (shooting) percentage all the way around.”
Abdullahi added, “It was a tough game, but we played with a lot of hustle.”
The Bulldogs played aggressive on defense, swarming the opponent and forcing steals which led to points on the other end of the court for Sobrato. Mark Garma, the Bulldogs 6-foot-1 sophomore guard, had five steals and four points in the game for the Bulldogs.
“We did a pretty good job. I’m pretty satisfied with the offense, we had some shooters get hot tonight and we forced a lot of steals which tends to generate our offense,” said Sobrato coach Lawrence Crawford. “We could have played better on defense. We have to learn how to body people up, when we’re down on the block we tend to get muscled out.”
Sobrato’s defense had its hands full with the Grizzlies two big post players in the paint, but managed to hold them off and shut down the rest of the team.
“Their post players were big and very physical,” said Crawford.
On Tuesday the Bulldogs fought it out and had a valiant fourth quarter effort against the San Lorenzo Valley Cougars before falling in overtime 56-51 at home.
“I’m absolutely pleased with the team’s progress,” said coach Crawford after the game. “I have nothing negative to say. They played like men, unfortunately we came up short. There will be no raised voices in the locker room, we’re going to talk about their successes and what they did well.”
Despite the confusion among the game’s referees throughout the night and being down one guard due to injury, the Bulldogs battled back from a 27-14 halftime deficit to force the Cougars into overtime.
Coach Crawford had no comment in regard to the referee confusion, except to say, “When you start pointing a finger at the ref, you use them as an excuse. It was the same referees for both teams.”
Crawford led the offensive charge for the Bulldogs with 19 points while Phillip Saenz added 11 points off the bench including a clutch 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 45-45.
“Before the fourth quarter I primarily told them if we gut it out and not lose hope we could win this game,” said coach Crawford. “We came up just short.”
In overtime the Cougars were able to pull away from the Bulldogs by hitting their free throws down the stretch when Sobrato was forced to foul.
The Bulldogs have a few days rest before they host the first annual Bulldog Chase, a four team tournament, on December 29-30.
“We are probably going to do more conditioning and work on running our offense to get ready for the tournament,” said Crawford.
