Saratoga News
Sports
Saratoga suffers lopsided loss at Palo Alto
By Greg Lydon
Down two starters, Saratoga boys basketball coach Mike Davey had two possible outcomes in mind for the Falcons on their trip to face off against Palo Alto on Saturday night.
"I told my guys that we would either come out and surprise these guys, or we'd lose by 40," Davey said. "As you saw, we were much closer to the second prediction unfortunately. Give Paly credit, they have a great team and we weren't ready to play tonight."
Led by a three-headed monster that few teams in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League will be able to rival, the deadly super scoring trio--Kevin Brown, Mike Scott and Dom Powell--was at it again for Palo Alto as the Vikings defeated the Falcons in their league opener 70-37 at Paly.
Coming off of a big offensive performance in a losing effort against Los Gatos earlier in the week, Saratoga's top offensive weapons were held in check by the superior front line of the Vikings. Point guard Keon Ghafouri was held to only eight points, while center Andrew Capek was limited to just two.
The Falcons received nice contributions from 5-foot-7 sophomore guard Daniel Chou and seldom-used forward Chris Owyang during the lopsided Paly victory.
Chou kept the quick Paly backcourt--led by Scott--in front of him for most of the night. Chou rained home three three-pointers and a team-high 16 points in a solid effort for Saratoga.
Owyang helped the banged up Falcons on the glass, snatching nine rebounds to help Capek keep the 6-foot-6 Powell off the offensive boards.
"Chris Owyang really gave us some nice minutes tonight," Davey said. "He was able to give us some energy along with guys like Daniel Chou and Chris Chiou. Keeping those guys off the glass when we have a 6-foot-1 post man in this league isn't a small task."
Each side traded baskets to open the game, but it was all Vikings after that. Paly blitzed Saratoga on a 26-5 run to end the first quarter, and for all intensive purposes, the game.
The Falcons turned the ball over on five of their first eight possessions leading to the Vikings fast break to feast off countless open court opportunities early.
Ghafouri nailed a double pump jumper to tie the score at two, but the speedy point man played out of control early, forcing his coach to sit him down.
"Keon is our best player, but he was turning the ball over for us too much early," Davey said. "I called a timeout after two possessions but I didn't like what I saw. It was very evident early that we didn't come to play tonight."
Capek had his hands full with super sophomore Brown, who stands 6-foot-3 but also possesses a deadly mid-range jump shot.
Steven Walker, Saratoga's starting power forward and middle linebacker on the football team, missed both games this week with nagging injuries but Davey expects him to be ready to go sometime this week.
Starting small forward Ryan Pak is out for the season with a torn meniscus.
Ghafouri watched for over five minutes on the bench while the Paly lead grew as the Vikings used a balanced attack.
A nice offensive board and step through finish from Chiou, followed by a steal and coast-to-coast layup from Ghafouri made the score 32-11 Paly nearing the halftime break. Down 28 points at the half, Saratoga only scored five points in the third quarter, sealing it second straight De Anza Division defeat.
"If we had our two starters here tonight it wouldn't have mattered," Davey said. "We played scared tonight. If we had Walker and Pak against Los Gatos that would have been a different story. We just need to figure out if this is going to be a really long season, or we need to start coming to play a lot harder than we did tonight."
The Falcons, who opened the week with a solid 9-4 season record, dropped their division opener at home against Los Gatos to open the week, falling 77-67 to the visiting Wildcats. Ghafouri scored 24 points, while Capek chipped in 19, but Greg Walters put home 14 points and three other Los Gatos players hit in double figures, as the Cats took home the impressive road victory.
Saratoga fell victim to the hot outside shooting of the Wildcats, who poured in 11 three-pointers in the win, including three by Walters.
The Falcons were also on target in the sharp-shooting contest, poured in eight threes. Ghafouri had three threes among his six field goals and added nine points at the free-throw line to finish with his 24. Capek finished with 19 points, including a three, and Chiou added 11 points, including three threes.
Alvin Hsia added eight points, Owen Huang four and Edmund Ye one. Huang also had a three.
The Falcons will try to get back on the winning track this week when they visit Fremont on Jan. 9, 7 p.m. and host Gunn on Jan. 11, 7:45 p.m.
Girls win a pair
The Saratoga girls, meanwhile, opened El Camino Division play with back-to-back wins, beating Los Altos 47-23 and Lynbrook 55-34. The Falcons, 13-3 this year, will be home for a pair of games this week when they host Homestead on Jan. 8, 7 p.m. and Monta Vista on Jan. 11, 6:15 p.m.
Junior Alex Sclavos poured in 13 points and senior Jessica Bramlett tossed in 12 to lead the Falcons to the 21-point win over the Vikings on Saturday night. Junior Sheeva Hamidieh supported with nine points and sophomore Nicole Gragnola added eight.
Erica Baba and Hanna Nielsen hit four points apiece, Vanessa Guzman had three and Baylee Yates hit two.
Bramlett, Sclavos, Hamidieh and Baba each popped three-pointers.
Gragnola buried a team-high 14 points and Sclavos had a three among her 12 points to lead the Falcons to the win over Los Altos.
Bramlett finished with nine points on three threes and Nielsen added four points. Hamidieh, Yates and Guzman each had two points and Baba and Ashley Cole added one apiece.