Photograph by George Sakkestad
Los Gatos center Sean Daily, battling for the ball in action against Monta Vista early this season, had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to a 55-53 overtime win over Milpitas.
By Dick Sparrer
Last week was a big one for the Los Gatos boys' basketball team.
The Wildcats were running head-first into Milpitas, a co-leader in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. And the Cats needed a win if they hoped to remain in that first-place tie.
But if last week was big for the Wildcats, this week is huge.
Only one team has beaten Los Gatos in division play this season, and that team--Palo Alto--will visit the Wildcats on Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.
As if that's not enough, Gatos will hit the road to visit a scrappy Los Altos club on Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
"This is a big week for us," Los Gatos coach Jim Marino said heading into the Paly game. "This is the week where we've got to get it going."
Los Gatos leads the De Anza pack with an 8-1 record following wins over Milpitas and Gunn last week. Palo Alto sits in second at 7-1 with Milpitas third at 7-2.
"They beat us pretty good up there," Marino said of Palo Alto. "And Los Altos is not bad."
The Gatos coach is hoping that his Wildcats can two-time the Vikings and Eagles this week like they did the Trojans and Titans last week.
Los Gatos beat Milpitas 55-53 in overtime last week and came back to whip Gunn 62-45.
"It was an exciting game," Marino said of the win over Milpitas. "It had a little bit of everything."
"And it was a good one to win," he added. "It was one of those games that was great to win, but would have been horrible to lose."
As pleased as Marino was with the win over Milpitas, he was equally as happy with the victory over Gunn.
"That was a good win for us," he said. "After an emotional win, you always worry about focus. But the kids responded real well."
Still, the big win of the week was the victory over the Trojans.
The lead bounced back and forth throughout regulation, but the Trojans tied it with four seconds left to send the game into overtime.
Milpitas went up four points in the extra period, but the Wildcats battled back to tie it.
"We just kept pecking away," Marino said.
Los Gatos took the lead for good in the final seconds. Sean Daily, who came up huge with 16 points and 10 rebounds, hit Court Showerman in stride with a length-of-the-court pass, and Showerman went in for the layup that put the Cats on top 55-53.
"[Showerman] just broke out deep and sprinted past guys," Marino said. "It was like a Steve Young to Jerry Rice sort of thing."
It only went for two points, not six, but that proved to be enough for Los Gatos to clinch the victory when a final Milpitas shot missed its mark.
"The guys didn't give up," Marino said. "It was a great come-from-behind effort in overtime."
Daily led the Cats both in scoring and on the boards. Brad Griffith added 14 points and eight rebounds.
"They did a pretty good defensive job on Brad," the coach said. "But that left Daily open and unguarded a couple of times."
Raleigh Nielsen chipped in with 10 points for the winner and Kris Coughran added nine. Matt Aiken had four points and eight assists.
Showerman had just two points, but they were mighty important points indeed.
Griffith came back with 22 points and nine rebounds to lead Los Gatos to an important 62-45 win over Gunn on Friday.
Coughran joined Griffith in double digits with 15 points, including a season-high four three-pointers. His single-game high was five last year in a game against Palo Alto.
Daily finished with six points and seven boards, and Aiken had six points and seven assists. Nielsen added four points and three assists.
The Wildcats, now 17-3 for the year, outscored the Titans in every period on the road to the win. Gunn cut the gap to 11 in the fourth period at 46-35, but the Cats ran off 11 unanswered points to put the win on ice.
Leigh boys win
Chris Karanastasis tossed in 22 points and Jeff Kakes popped 18 to lead the Leigh boys' basketball team to a 77-60 win over Gunderson in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
Troy Marcyes chipped in with 10 points in the win as Leigh evened its record at 4-4 in the division. The Longhorns are 11-9 for the year.
Dan Ljepava fired in six points for Leigh and Marcus Lua and David Cardenas added four apiece. Scott Yamamoto had three points and Brian Utsumi, Andy Nelson, Will St. Clair, Greg Garrison and Ryan Weeks had two each.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 7, 1996.
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