Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by Lea Tauriello

Los Gatos senior forward Collin Black (45) and junior Devan Denton, battling for the basketball in a game earlier this year against Saratoga, helped the Cats to a win over Watsonville in the Soquel Winter Classic last Saturday.

Gingery hits game winner

Wildcats win Soquel opener

By Dick Sparrer

The play was designed to go to Mike McSweeney for a back door.

At least, that was the first choice.

But McSweeney was covered underneath the hoop, so the Wildcats went to Plan B--and it worked to perfection.

Sophomore forward Matt Gingery buried a shot with eight seconds left to play to lift the Los Gatos boys' basketball team to a thrilling 55-54 win over Watsonville in the first round of the Soquel Winter Classic last Saturday.

The win pushed the Wildcats into the tournament semifinals against Santa Cruz on Monday. The winner of that game was to play for the tourney title on Tuesday at 7 p.m., with the loser to play for third place at 5:30 p.m.

Los Gatos needs back-to-back wins in the two games this week to come out of the nonleague season with a winning record. The Cats improved to 6-7 with the win over Watsonville, but even a split in the games on Monday and Tuesday would mean that Gatos would enter in the season in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with a losing record.

The Wildcats will open that league season on Jan. 7 when they visit Wilcox for a 7 p.m. game. The Chargers are currently the only team in the division with a winning record.

The Cats had lost three straight games in the Ed Hopkins Classic in Fairfield last week to slip to 5-7 for the year. They had to play the last two games of the tourney without Gingery, who was ill and returned home.

"He really makes a difference for us," said Los Gatos coach Jim Marino of the 6-foot-5 sophomore forward.

Her certainly did on Saturday night.

Gingery poured in a team-high 20 points and ripped down 11 rebounds to lead the Cats to the win over Watsonville. And none of his points were any more important than his last two.

The Wildcats had tied the game 51-51, then went up 53-51 with 55 seconds left to play. Watsonville's Wildcats battled back to tie it 53-53, and their shooter fouled on the play. He tacked on the free throw, and Watsonville was up 54-53.

Los Gatos inbounded with 24 seconds left.

"It was designed to get a back-door play for McSweeney," said Marino of the game's final play.

But when McSweeney was covered, Gingery kicked the ball back outside to David Whiteside.

Gingery then worked himself open, and Whiteside hit him with the pass. The sophomore went up for the shot and drilled it home to give the Cats a 55-54 lead with eight seconds left in the game.

Watsonville managed to get off a desperation shot that missed its mark, and Gatos had clinched the victory. "It was a nice win," he added. "But it's always nice to win those close games."

Gingery led the Cats with his 20 points, including three three-pointers.

"That was probably his best offensive game of the year," the coach said.

Whiteside, McSweeney and Steve Bidermann supported with nine points each in the win. Bidermann and McSweeney each dropped threes.

Jonathan Groff tossed in four points for the winners, Beau Knight hit two and Collin Black and Darin Mills hit one each.

McSweeney led the club with five assists and Whiteside added three, including the key pass to Gingery for the game winning bucket.

Gingery led the club with his 11 rebounds and Bidermann and McSweeney snagged four boards apiece.

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