Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Wildcats win to finish the first half even at 3-3

By Dick Sparrer

It was an important win for the Los Gatos basketball team.

Sure, Santa Clara may have been in last place in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. And the Bruins may have been winless.

But this was a game that Los Gatos was supposed to win. And the Wildcats knew that if they have any hope staying with the rest of the pack in the division heading into the second half of the league season, they had to beat the Bruins.

They did, and in easy fashion.

Los Gatos dominated Santa Clara 52-45 last week to wrap up the first half of the league season with a 3-3 record.

The Cats now head into the toughest part of their league schedule this week. They visit Milpitas on Feb. 4, 7 p.m., and host Palo Alto on Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m., and they're looking for victories after losing to both clubs in the first round of the league campaign.

Despite an 0-3 start in division play, the Cats came back to finish the first round even at 3-3, thanks to last week's win over Santa Clara.

Sophomore Matt Gingery led the Cats with 14 points, and senior Mike McSweeney fired in 10. Both hit a pair of three-pointers in the win.

Jonathan Groff added nine points for Gatos; Steve Bidermann hit eight; David Whiteside, Pat Bartelmie and Aaron Jahn, three each; and Sky Swab, two.

In girls' action last week, senior guard Niki Bumbaca poured in 22 points, including three three-pointers, to lead Los Gatos to a 53-45 win over Santa Clara in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL.

Liz Coughran supported with 10 points for the Wildcats. Kristin Ozawa added eight, Trina Mills seven, Erin Cushing four and May Shishido two.

The win helped the Cats improve to 2-4 in the division and to 9-6 for the year.

The Leigh boys split a couple of games last week in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League, beating Gunderson 72-70 in overtime to open the week but losing 64-49 to unbeaten Piedmont Hills a few days later.

Leigh fought back from a six-point deficit at the half to tie Gunderson in regulation, 64-64. The Longhorns then edged the Grizzlies 8-6 in the extra period to pull out the win.

Alex Kargbo poured in 23 points to lead the Longhorns to the victory. Jason Guidry added 16 points, Josh Kreuzer 11, Adam LaBare 10 and Mike Ljepava eight.

Ljepava led the Longhorns with nine points in the loss to the Pirates later in the week. Leigh slipped to 4-3 in the division and to 8-11 for the year with the loss.

Leigh's girls split last week, beating Santa Teresa 43-40 before losing to powerhouse Mitty 84-40.

Melody Page tossed in 14 points, and Kathy Zehrbach added 10 to lead the Longhorns to the win over the Saints.

Lauren Griswold popped five points for Leigh, Cinty McGowan had four, Melanie Hohlfeld and Dana Nisich hit three apiece and Kimberly Schlief and Lili Jafari added two each.

Griswold came back with 12 points and Zehrbach added seven, but Leigh lost to unbeaten Mitty to close out the week.

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