Saratoga News
Sports
Win streak comes to an end for Falcons
By Dick Sparrer
The streak came to an end for the Saratoga boys basketball team, but what a run it was.
After opening the league season with four straight losses, including a 70-37 drubbing at the hands of Palo Alto, the Falcons came back to win fourth straight, including a 52-49 win over Paly.
The Falcons evened their record at 4-4 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League during the streak, but it all came to an end last Friday night when they dropped a 50-47 heartbreaker to Gunn in Palo Alto.
Still, the streak got Saratoga back into contention for a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs, and the Falcons will do their best to secure that spot in the final three regular season games.
Saratoga plays just one game this week, a Friday night clash at Cupertino, 7:45 p.m. The Pioneers are 8-1 in league play, their only loss a 61-59 defeat at the hands of Saratoga. The Falcons will then host Milpitas on Feb. 13 and visit Los Gatos on Feb. 15.
Cupertino tops the De Anza pack with that 8-1 record and Fremont is in the cellar at 1-8. But in between, the other five clubs are battling for second place. Gunn sits in second now at 5-3 with Paly at 5-4, Gatos at 4-4 and Saratoga at 4-5. With two weeks remaining in a league where just a couple of weeks ago Saratoga stuck Cupertino with its only loss, anything can happen.
The Falcons made it four straight with a 68-58 win over Fremont last week. Saratoga outscored the Firebirds 19-14 in the first quarter and 20-12 in the second to take a commanding 39-26 lead by the half.
Andy Capek led the Saratoga attack with 17 points. The 6-foot-2 senior forward had a three-point bucket among his six field goals and he added four points at the free-throw line.
Keon Ghafouri pitched in three threes on his way to a 15 point night and Steven Walker tossed in 11 points.
Edmund Ye and Jamie Turley added seven points apiece, Daniel Chou had six and Alvin Hsia hit five. Chou had a pair of threes and Ye added one.
The streak ended later in the week, though, when the Falcons lost to the Titans.
Ghafouri buried 17 points, including two threes among his five field goals and five points at the line, to lead the Falcons. Walker netted six field goals to finish with 12 and Capek, Owen Huang and Chou added five each.
The Saratoga girls, meanwhile, roared past Homestead 57-36 to improve to 8-0 in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL.
The Falcons outscored the Mustangs in every period, including a 20-6 surge in the fourth quarter to clinch the lopsided win.
Hannah Nielson had a couple of threes among five field goals and added four free throws to finish with a team-high 16 points. Sheeva Hamidieh supported with 13 points, including three threes, and Alex Sclavos added 10 points.
Vanessa Guzman chipped in with seven, Kattie Gasik had three, Erica Baba, Jessica Bramlett and Laura Ruddy hit two each and Nicole Gragnola and Ashley Cole had one apiece.