Two games behind the leader in the Peninsula Athletic League North Division boys’ basketball standings, the second-place Jefferson Grizzlies have a big showdown coming up Friday, Feb. 7 in hosting first-place Half Moon Bay.
Still, head coach John Falabella isn’t letting his Grizzlies get ahead of themselves.
“If we plan to chase and catch Half Moon Bay, they are the top dog right now, we need to win every game,” Falabella said. “So, we’re taking it one play at a time, one quarter at a time, one half at a time, one game at a time to see what we can do.”
If the Grizzlies (5-2 PAL North, 10-9 overall) can finish the regular season the way they finished Wednesday’s 58-46 win at home over Terra Nova, they might just have a chance. After a back-and-forth battle that saw seven lead changes through the first three quarters, Jefferson pulled away in the fourth, shooting 52.1% from the floor throughout, including 5 of 10 in the final period.
Jefferson may not have the most imposing height in the post, but still dominated the boards in the second half. Terra Nova (4-4, 8-12) went into the halftime locker room leading the rebounding battle 19-18. In the second half, the Tigers totaled just eight rebounds, with three of them being team rebounds, as the Grizzlies ultimately won the war on the boards 34-27.
“Every other team is always bigger than us, so we always have to rebound,” said Saif Fara, Jefferson’s senior forward who grabbed a game-high 10 boards. “That’s how we get our second-chance points and that’s how we get more chances for scoring. … In the second half we had coach talking to us a lot about rebounding. So, we had to go in there and hustle every time we got the ball. And we just had to make good possessions.”
The turning point of the game was in the closing minutes of the third quarter when Terra Nova point guard Jordan Salgado had to come off the floor with a knee injury. Jefferson was leading 36-35 and Terra Nova had possession when Salgado felt something in his knee pop, according to Tigers head coach Kenny Milch.
As Salgado limped around in pain, the Tigers missed a shot attempt and Jefferson nabbed a rebound, pushing up the floor quickly in transition. At the other end, the Grizzlies exploited a 5 on 4 with Isaiah Cruz crushing a 3-pointer with a wide-open look. In the midst of a 13-0 run, Jefferson would improve its lead to 44-35 just one minute into the fourth quarter.
“[Salgado] is our leader,” Kenny Milch said. “He’s so good and brings so many different intangibles to our game. When you lose a player with his value it affects all the other guys. And they gave it their best but down the stretch they hit three or four huge 3-pointers.”
The status of Salgado’s health was not available immediately following the game. The senior did reenter the game in the fourth quarter but, in noticeable pain, he had to come off after just one play.
Recommended for you
“Jordan is a huge player,” Terra Nova senior AJ Ornelas said. “He makes huge plays at huge times, and it’s really unfortunate we lost him. He’s one of our main ball carriers; and we don’t have a lot of ball carriers. And he’s one of our leaders. He keeps it going through the tough times. And unfortunately, we couldn’t put it together but we’re going to get back at it next time.”
The Grizzlies got cooking from beyond the arc, going 4 of 7 on 3-pointers in the second half. Cruz hit two 3s in the third quarter and went on to share the team-high scoring of 11 points. Senior center Karim Caraballo also scored 11 and added seven rebounds.
“There’s guarded 3s and there’s open 3s, and in the first half we didn’t do a great job attacking their defense and it was more guarded shots,” Falabella said. “In the second half we did a better job attacking and we were able to get some open looks that we did knock down.”
In the early going it was Terra Nova that went on a 3 spree. Ornelas greeted Jefferson’s first possession with a steal at midcourt and converted a 3-pointer off of it. Junior forward Justin Milch then hit two quick 3s to give the Tigers an 11-5 lead inside the opening four minutes.
Jefferson closed the gap, playing fast and furious to finish the first quarter on a 9-2 run, capped by a straight strip by senior sixth-man Tariq Byrd for a steal and score to give the Grizzlies a 14-13 lead.
Terra Nova responded with a 6-0 run to start the second quarter. And a 3-pointer by Salgado at the midway point of the period gave the Tigers a 22-16 lead. From then on, Terra Nova went ice cold from beyond the arc and shot just 32.7% from the floor throughout, including 6 of 25 from 3-point land.
“It’s very off and on,” Ornelas said. “We can make a lot some games, and then other games we just can’t make it. We’ve just got to improvise and figure out how to score no matter what.”
Jefferson rallied back and took a 27-26 lead with a minute to go in the half when Chase McKnight finished with a layup in transition. But Terra Nova fired back as senior Bourgan Guibadoulline grabbed an impressive offensive rebound and scored the put-back to make it 28-27 Tigers at the half.
The second half, however, belonged to the Grizzlies.
Justin Milch finished with a game-high 20 points. Guibadoulline added 13 points and seven rebounds.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.