The Lady Acorns secured their first win Thursday, beating Yerba
Buena 59-40
MORGAN HILL — Ariana Guerrero smiled the entire game.
Her Live Oak teammates joined her afterward.
As soon as the final horn sounded, Danielle Dukes threw a water bottle and jumped onto Guerrero, laughing. Jacey Turay wrapped her arms around both of them. Sarah Mesa ran to the bench and joined the celebration, which had been stirring for minutes — even weeks. Their coach, Jeff Perkins, smiled while straightening his tie.
Victory at last.
Following an 0-14 start, the Lady Acorns earned their first win in almost a year Thursday, beating Yerba Buena 59-40 in a Blossom Valley Athletic League-West Valley Division game in Live Oak Gym.
The Acorns held nothing back — during and after.
“It feels extremely refreshing,” said Guerrero, who collected a game-high 16 points, eight rebounds and four steals. “We’ve been working so hard and we’ve come so close so many times to winning this season. It’s nice that we’ve finally concentrated, set our goals and met them.”
Live Oak’s last victory was Feb. 5, 2007; a 38-32 triumph over Del Mar.
The Acorns (1-14 overall, 1-5 BVAL) this year lost their first two division contests by three points combined. They were coming off a frustrating 27-17 defeat at James Lick.
“It feels good because, for them, they needed this so badly,” Perkins said. “Now that they’ve won, the message is the same that it’s been. They’re a lot better than people think they are. Now they’ve seen what they can do. They need to keep going.”
Yerba Buena made Live Oak earn the win. The Aztec Warriors (0-13, 0-6) — also vying for win No.1 — built leads of eight and seven in the first half before the Acorns found their groove. Live Oak mounted a 10-2 scoring run to end the second quarter, taking the lead for good with Mesa’s short jumper than made it 20-19 at halftime.
“When we saw them beating us, we didn’t get discouraged,” said Guerrero, a junior post. “We kept our heads up. It meant nothing. We kept a good, positive attitude and we kept working hard and kept going on the strength we had. We didn’t give up.”
Getting stronger as the game went on, the Acorns looked like a completely different team in the second half. Point guard Niki Patel dished two of her six assists during a two-minute span, as Live Oak put together another 10-2 run to start the third quarter.
Mesa, who finished with 10 points, seven steals and four assists, capped it with a coast-to-coast drive off a steal, pushing the lead 30-22.
“Sarah, she always does good,” Guerrero said. “She’s always hustling, dishing nice balls and working hard. She helps everyone around her.”
The Acorns’ breakthrough night culminated in a 27-point fourth quarter. They capitalized off their opponent’s full-court press, which opened up wide passing lanes in the paint. Patel fed two assists to Guerrero during a 9-0 run, then found Turay open under the rim for back-to-back layups, sparking a 6-0 spurt.
“We were turning the ball over. So that gave us opportunities,” Perkins said. “But we started — in the open court — started passing the ball instead of just dribbling and shooting. We were taking easy shots that were going in, and that gets contagious.
“Patel and Mesa were seeing the floor. And when they got pressured, they got the ball to someone that was open.”
Live Oak took its biggest lead 53-30 on Kala Kyle’s jumper with 1:54 remaining. Kyle matched Dukes with eight points, and Turay ended with six; all in the fourth quarter.
“We all relied on each other. It was a great team effort,” said Mesa, a junior swingman. “We made some nice passes. We got up by a lot, but we still played like we were down.”
Jessica Rodriguez collected 16 points and nine rebounds to lead Yerba Buena. Alezabeth Keo scored all six of her points in the first quarter, as the Aztec Warriors opened up a 12-4 lead. They went ahead 19-12 after Keo found Tiffany Schao open for an easy jumper, but the Acorns answered with their first big run to end the half.
“You could tell, as the game went on, especially toward the end, their confidence was coming back,” Perkins said. “They were rebounding well, making good passes and creating open shots.
“I’m hoping that team in the fourth quarter is the team I have from now on.”
Live Oak on Tuesday travels to Andrew Hill before hosting Overfelt next Thursday.
