From the sports archives: Menlo gets hot, Carlmont can't hit shots

Anthony Burrell's missed layup off a steal midway through the third quarter was a sign of things to come as the Scots could not overcome Menlo School in the semifinals of the Peninsula Athletic League tournament. The Knights, on the other hand, finally found their shooting stroke in the second half as they scored the first nine points of the third quarter en route to a 45-38 win.

"In the first half, we turned the ball over a little bit," said Menlo coach Kris Weems, whose Knights managed only 14 first-half points. "Our defense kept us in the game."

Menlo faces Menlo-Atherton in the finals at 7:45 p.m. Saturday night at South San Francisco High. M-A beat Mills 58-52 in the other semifinal game.

Neither team was very well in the first as the teams combined to score 29 points, with the Scots holding a 15-14 lead at the break. In the second half, Menlo started coming on and when it counted the most, Carlmont couldn't respond.

The Scots had their chances. Trailing by five, 29-24, entering the fourth quarter, Carlmont (17-10) three times cut the Menlo (23-5) lead to three but each time the Scots could not finish the comeback.

It wasn't for lack of trying. Carlmont did everything right and had several open looks at the basket. The Scots' shots just weren't falling in the final four minutes of the game.

"Against Menlo, as solid as they are defensively, when you get good shots, you have to knock them down," said Carlmont coach Dave Low. "When we had those uncontested shots, we had to bury those."

Those struggles were evident in the final frantic minutes with Carlmont trying to get back in the game. The Scots managed only four points over the final two minutes of the game, despite getting good looks nearly every time down the court.

Despite the missed opportunities, Low couldn't blame his team.

"I told them, if you execute and attack and take quality shots and don't hit them, there's not much you can do," Low said.

Weems knows the feeling. Menlo had shooting struggles of its own, but they came early instead of late.

"[Carlmont] had good looks and didn't go in, but we had that earlier," Weems said.

Menlo got off to a quick start, hitting its first two shots for a quick 4-0 lead but Carlmont responded with a 9-0 run for a 9-4 lead and led 11-8 after one quarter.

That's when both teams went ice cold from the floor. Neither team scored until Malou Mading woke everybody up in the gym when he flew threw the air and slammed home a missed shot to give Carlmont a 13-8 lead -- with 4:29 left in the first half. The Scots managed only one other bucket in the quarter -- from Michael Brady with 2:46 left in the second quarter.

Menlo, meanwhile, was having problems of its own. The Knights managed only six points in the quarter but trailed by only one at halftime.

In the second half, the Knights came out firing, led by point guard Michael Guertin and wing player Beau Heidrich. Both finished with game-high honors of 14 points but combined to score 13 of the Knights' 15 third quarter points. Guertin knocked down a bucket less than a minute into the second half to give the Knights a 16-15 lead, one they would not relinquish. Heidrich followed with a three-point play and two more free throws before Guertin capped the 9-0 outburst with another bucket.

Alex Smith broke up the Guertin-Heidrich scoring party with a basket at 4:34 but the dynamic duo capped the quarter with a flurry. First, Heidrich came up with a steal and layup for a 27-24 lead. Guertin followed with a leaning layup at the buzzer to give the Knights a 29-24 advantage heading into the final quarter.

Heidrich, who struggled to find his game late in the regular season, was a bull Friday night. After knocking down a couple of jumpers, he put his head down and drove his way to the basket on several occasions. When he wasn't doing it offensively, he was doing it defensively as he pulled down nine rebounds.

"Beau's an interesting player," Weems said. "He's gotten better with his game. He's always been a scrappy player. It's nice to have a player who can do a little bit of everything."

Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.