Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Driving in to draw the foul is Los Gatos guard Mike McSweeny. The senior guard poured in 13 points to help the Wildcats to a clutch win over Wilcox in their final home game of the year.

Knight's bucket sinks Wilcox

Local teams move into CCS playoffs

By Dick Sparrer

Beau Knight has spent most of the year playing basketball for the frosh-soph team at Los Gatos.

But the sophomore guard joined the varsity a couple of weeks back, and the Wildcats were certainly happy to have him on the floor last Friday night.

Knight buried a shot with just 4.5 seconds remaining to lift the Wildcats to a thrilling 56-55 victory over Wilcox on the final night of the season in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

It was quite a finish for the Cats, who trailed by as much as 17 in the third period and by 14 with less than six minutes to play in the game.

Los Gatos didn't need the victory to clinch a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs. The Wildcats had already secured a spot with a rousing 63-48 win over Santa Clara earlier in the week. But the win did provide the Cats some momentum as they head into the postseason.

"This is a good time for us to be going into the playoffs," said Los Gatos coach Jim Marino, whose club finished the league season by winning its last four games and seven of its last nine.

"That was a good turnaround for us," added Marino. "We started out 0-3. A lot of teams would have given up, but the kids persevered."

Gatos wrapped up the division season with a 7-5 record and will take a 13-14 into the CCS Division III playoffs.

The Wildcats open against Saratoga, a team that beat Los Gatos early in the year in the Wildcat Shootout. The Falcons are 15-10 for the year and posted a 7-5 record in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL.

"Right now, we're playing better than we were earlier in the year," admitted Marino. "We've really improved."

Saratoga was set to host the Cats on Feb. 24, 7 p.m., in a first-round game. The winner moves on to visit No. 1 seed Seaside (21-5) on Feb. 26, 7 p.m.

In other local action, the Leigh boys will visit Salinas (18-9) for a first round game in the CCS Division II playoffs on Feb. 25, 7 p.m. The Longhorns are 10-14 for the year but posted a 6-6 mark in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

The Los Gatos and Leigh girls' teams will each advance to postseason play and open CCS with a home game.

The Wildcats, 12-9 for the year, hosted Los Altos, 11-13, on Feb. 24, 7 p.m., in the CCS Division III playoffs, and Leigh, 14-7, will entertain Piedmont Hills, 15-9, on Feb. 26, 7 p.m.

The Los Gatos boys, meanwhile, clinched their CCS berth with the win over Santa Clara to open the week, but they finished up with a winning league mark thanks to the thrilling win over Wilcox on Friday.

"That was real nice," said a happy Marino after the victory. "That was a good win for us. We avenged a loss from earlier in the season. They beat us up pretty good early in the year."

Senior guard Mike McSweeney led all Los Gatos scorers with 13 points and topped a list of five Cats who hit 10 three-pointers in the win. McSweeney and Knight drained three threes each, Jonathan Groff hit two and Matt Gingery and Aaron Jahn added one apiece.

"We really shot the ball well, especially from the outside," said Marino.

Groff finished with 12 points in the win, and Gingery added 11; Knight had nine points, all on threes; Pat Bartelmie, four; Jahn, three; and Collin Black and David Whiteside, two each.

"We really did a good job of playing defense against their big guy," added the coach. "They have a 6-foot-8 guy, and he had a good game against us the last time."

But Steve Bidermann and Black managed to "keep him off the boards," said the coach. Bidermann finished with four rebounds, and Black pulled down three.

Gingery finished with four boards, and McSweeney, Whiteside and Darin Mills had three each in the win.

McSweeney and Gingery led the club with three assists apiece, and Whiteside and Knight had two each.

Earlier in the week, McSweeney dropped a couple of threes on his way to 12 points in the easy 63-48 win over Santa Clara.

"That was nice, because everybody got a chance to play," Marino said of the battle with the Bruins. "We pretty much controlled the game from the outset."

Jahn buried three threes to finish with nine points, and Gingery had a three among his nine points. Groff added nine points, and Knight and Bidermann hit five apiece. Knight popped a three.

Chipping in with two points each were Whiteside, Bartelmie, Devan Denton, Black, Mills, Steve Pulley and Jeremy Sontag.

Bidermann led the Cats on the boards with six rebounds, and McSweeney grabbed four.

Girls are 5-7

The Los Gatos girls' team finished 5-7 in their division, ending on a losing note in league play.

Trina Mills tossed in 13 points and Liz Coughran added 12, but the Wildcats lost 48-45 to division champ Monta Vista in their final league game. The loss left the Cats 5-7 in league play and 13-9 for the year.

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