Run-and-gun Grizzlies overtake Cap in 2nd half

The Grizzlies used the stretch to go on a 10-point run, overtake Cap for the first time since the opening minutes and skate to a 43-38 victory in their final road game until the new year.

“That’s how we play,” Jefferson head coach John Falabella said. “We play from the start of the game to the end of the game. We play with tons of intensity. We have a never-say-die, never-quit attitude. That’s the way we play.”

Jeff (3-5 overall) entered play with a 2-5 record, though the mark is somewhat misleading. Through those seven games, the Grizzlies were outscored 421-402 against some powerhouse opponents, including a 58-54 loss to Menlo-Atherton; an 85-80 triple-overtime loss to Half Moon Bay; and 58-56 loss to Aragon.

“If the ball falls a different way, we could be as good as 6-1,” Falabella said. “We’re not 6-1, but one of the messages to the team was we are going to take the floor as if we are a 6-1 team.”

With Cap (2-4) missing its best shooter in senior forward Conner Coplin — who has been out since suffering a sever ankle injury in the second game of the year against Arroyo-San Lorenzo — the run-and-gun Grizzlies were happy to run the Mustangs into a shooting rut that saw several air balls and a miss on a wide-open, fast-break layup through the final quarter.

“That’s the one thing you don’t want to do against Jeff,” Capuchino head coach Marty Ruiz said. “They’re a running team. … I think (down the stretch) we had nothing in the tank.”

Jefferson forward Tariq Byrd helped settle his team down through an erratic first half. The Grizzlies totaled 19 turnovers in the game, 12 of which came in the opening half, during which Cap opened up a 24-9 lead.

The Grizzlies closed the half on an 11-3 run, though, with Byrd scoring his first points on a smooth dribble drive with 1:16 remaining before the half. The junior drew a foul on the play, converted the and-1, and helped bring Jeff back to respectability, trailing 27-20 at the break.

“While the score at halftime is relevant, it’s not totally relevant because we’re playing a 32-minute game,” Falabella said. “So we busted our butts for 32 minutes. And at the end of the game we hoped to have the lead.”

Byrd went on to score a game-high 11 points, including a one of just three Jefferson 3-pointers — the Grizzlies shot just 3 of 17 from beyond the arc — to close the deficit to 28-25 on a cross-court pass from forward Luis Villarreal less than three minutes into the second half.

The Grizzlies finally caught Cap at 29-29 with 2:07 left in the third quarter when point guard J.J. Cruz pushed in transition to kick and assist to Villarreal. Cap answered right back with a dribble drive from senior Dylan Ackermann to take its last lead of the night at 31-29 with 1:56 to go in the third.

The Mustangs, though, wouldn’t score again until there was 1:48 left in the fourth.

“The press bothered us a little bit,” Ruiz said. “They speeded up the tempo and we got out of the game plan. In the first half we did a good job with the game plan. The second half we just stopped playing the game plan and just went 1 on 1.”

Jeff guard Marquez Costiniano closed the third quarter with two of his nine points to tie it 31-31. Then after an assist pass from sophomore forward Brooks Daniels to Villarreal gave the Grizzlies a 33-31 lead, Byrd helped preserve it with an exciting offensive exchange.

Byrd followed a Cap miss by losing the handle at the other end on a short running jumper through the lane. The loose ball careened toward half court, with Byrd chasing it down. He had to fight through traffic to control it, but with two Cap players breathing down his neck, he scooped it up and, in one motion, wheeled and fired into the paint for a dime pass to Cruz.

“I turned the ball over so I was like, ‘I’ve got to get the ball back,’” said Byrd, who was a standout wide receiver with the Jeff football team earlier this year.

“Coach said play like it’s football,” he said. “So I dove for the ball, got it, threw it back to my point guard and had another point scored.”

Jeff shot 40.4 percent from the field, including 16 of 30 inside the arc. Cap was a solid 53.8 percent (7 of 13) shooting in the first quarter, but went on to convert just seven field goals the rest of the way.

“That wasn’t our game plan to attack them in the open court,” Ruiz said. “We wanted to run stuff and we just stopped doing it.”