Gunn shoots down Scots

Carlmont kept it close but Gunn improved to 4-0 on the young season with a 65-49 win.

"It was a tough matchup for our first game," said Carlmont coach Irene Oliveira.

It doesn't get any easier for the Scots. The defending Central Coast Section Division I champs face 10-time defending Division V champ Pinewood in a loser's bracket game at 3:15 p.m. today. Pinewood was upset, 59-56 in overtime, by Lowell of San Francisco.

Carlmont (0-1) didn't play horribly against Gunn, but it was evident Gunn has a little more rhythm because of the three games the Titans already played. Poor free throw shooting, turnovers and an inability to stop Gunn's inside-outside tandem of Neva Hauser and Jasmine Evans -- who combined for 41 points -- were too much for the Scots to overcome. The Titans got a ton of points off 19 steals, with Evans being the recipient of most of those easy buckets.

"We were very raw," Oliveira said. "We made a lot of mental mistakes."

Evans paced the Titans with a game-high 25 points. Hauser was the only other Titan in double figures, finishing with 16. Carlmont was led by forward Colleen Garrett, who scored 16 points, pulled down four rebounds and had four assists. Point guard Lauren Kilburg added 14.

The Titans' blew out their first three opponents by using a suffocating half-court trap. The Scots, who are used to applying pressure of their own, handled Gunn's defense fairly well. So well, in fact, that the Titans used the trap only sparingly throughout the game.

The Titans overall defensive pressure, however, was just as tough. They jumped the passing lanes to tip balls toward midcourt and then beat Carlmont to the ball for easy layups. A majority of Gunn's baskets, in fact, came from five feet and in.

The game started well for Carlmont. A Lauren Kilburg layup got the Scots within 8-6 with just under three minutes to play in the first quarter. Gunn responded with a 6-0 run -- Evans used dribble penetration for a layup, scored off a steal and got another layup from Hauser -- to take a 14-6 lead. It could have been worse but Carlmont's Colleen Garrett drained a 3-pointer with 1 second left to close to 14-9.

The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair. Gunn got a 3-pointer from Evans and a putback bucket from Hauser to go up 19-11 with 4:46 left in the half, but Carlmont's Kilburg answered with a 3 of her own. The Scots trailed 27-20 at halftime, had a chance to get closer but went 0 for 3 from the free throw line in the final 18 seconds.

Gunn appeared ready to put the game away in the third quarter. Up by 6, 35-29, with 4:11 to play in the quarter, the Titans went on a 5-0 run, pushing their lead to 11. Carlmont countered, however, outscoring Gunn 7-0 over the final 2:32 to trail by only four heading into the fourth quarter.

At that point, it appeared the Scots ran out of gas. After the two teams exchanged buckets to start the final eight minutes, Gunn took their largest lead of the game at 12, 50-38, thanks to a 8-0 run in which all four baskets were within two feet. The Scots had one last spurt in them, out-scoring the Titans 6-0 over the final three minutes, but it wasn't enough.

"We weren't focused on defense," Oliveira said. "We wanted to hold [Evans] and we didn't."