Photograph by Lea Tauriello
Fighting for the basketball is Elizabeth Coughran of Los Gatos. Coughran had 27 points in two games to lead the Wildcats to a pair of wins last week.
By Dick Sparrer
A season that started out so promising took a dismal turn for the Los Gatos girls' basketball team.
The Wildcats were 12-2 heading into play in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, and they opened league play with three straight victories.
Three losses in a row left the Cats reeling, though, and left them in the middle of the pack in the division with a 3-3 record.
But the Cats are back!
Los Gatos is back on track and winning again. The Wildcats won twice last week and will take a three-game win streak and a 6-3 division record into play this week
But it's no easy week. The Cats have three games left in the regular season, all against clubs they lost to on the first trip through the league schedule.
Los Gatos was to host Homestead on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. and will visit powerful St. Francis on Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. before closing out the regular season at home against unbeaten Monta Vista on Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.
The three straight wins, though, have left the Wildcats in good shape heading into those three last games. And Nina Vinther and Elizabeth Coughran led the Cats to those three straight wins.
Vinther tossed in 18 points and Coughran added 10 in a 53-41 win over Milpitas to open play last week, and Coughran came back with 17 and Vinther hit 16 in a 61-43 win over Gunn.
Coughran buried six buckets and hit five free throws and Vinther drilled eight field goals to lead all Gatos scorers in the win over the Titans.
Deva Dawson chipped in with nine points for the winners and Tina Cseuz added seven. Niki Bumbaca dropped four points, including a three-pointer, and Serena Poon, Samantha Sprogis, Christina Cordes and Laura Raffaelli had two points each.
Gunn led by a bucket in the first, but the Wildcats blitzed the Titans 19-9 in the second period and 20-6 in the third to take control of the game.
It was different against Milpitas. Los Gatos jumped out to a 21-6 lead in the first period and roared to the victory.
The Trojans cut the lead by a field goal in the second quarter, but Gatos virtually put the game away by topping Milpitas 16-6 in the third.
Vinther buried a three-pointer among her seven field goals on the way to an 18-point night.
Leigh wins a pair
Katherine Zehrbach pumped in 33 points in two games to lead the Leigh girls' basketball team to back-to-back wins over Mt. Pleasant and Gunderson in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
The Longhorns improved to 9-1 in the division and to 12-9 for the year with the victories.
Zehrbach bombed 20 points to lead the Longhorns past Mt. Pleasant. Cassie Voelcker and Carrie Griswald supported with eight points apiece in the victory. Christina Lombardo chipped in with six points, Veronica Inman had five and Sarah Peterson three,
Leigh jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first period and never looked back.
Zehrbach came back with 13 points to lead the Longhorns to a 45-31 win over Gunderson later in the week.
Lombardo pitched in nine points for the winners, Voelcker eight, Griswald six, Inman five and Peterson three.
Leigh outscored Gunderson in every period on the road to the win.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 7, 1996.
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