The Resident

Sports

Warriors start fast in win over Longhorns

By Greg Lydon

Westmont coach Bill Gerth said he remembers a 12-10 boys high school basketball game early in the 1970s. Well, his 2008 Westmont Warriors play at a little different speed.

"The style we play is the new school type of basketball," Gerth said with a smile. "We play four guys on the perimeter and one guy inside, and we try to set the tempo every night."

The Warriors snatched up victories against Mountain View and Cupertino in preseason play en route to their impressive 13-5 record overall.

"Cupertino is 17-3 right now, so to have a win against that caliber of a team really speaks to the level that our team is playing at right now," Gerth said. "If someone asked me before the season where I thought we would be right now, I'd have said a 7-7 mark. I'm very happy looking at 13-5 instead."

If you made it to the gym a couple minutes late Friday night at Leigh, you missed a quite a show. The only problem for the Leigh fans was that was Westmont putting on the display. The Warriors connected on six of their first seven shots, jumping out to a 19-2 lead in the opening minutes. Westmont carried the momentum from that quick start to an impressive 68-52 victory over Leigh improving to 3-1 in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

"We like to drive and kick; when it works, it's pretty fun to watch," Gerth said. "We've been down 20 in a couple games and had to come back this year, and we've jumped on teams early like we did tonight."

Senior forward Patrick Barton led all scorers with 20 points. Barton was one of four Warriors in double figures during the big road victory. Sophomore forward Brian Scott scored 16 points, savvy point guard Max Schneider put in 17 and junior forward James Weimer dropped in 11.

Schneider was brilliant running the show, directing the up-tempo attack for Westmont. Schneider hit Scott on a back door pass to open the game's scoring, and the Warriors were off and running. Greg Talley hit a jumper in the key, followed by back-to-back three-pointers for Westmont forcing a Leigh timeout call. Right after the timeout another Scott three-pointer was dropped home, then Schneider drilled his second three-pointer to continue the sizzling start for the Warriors.

Leigh started to claw back after the 19-2 deficit early, stringing together a little run before the end of the first quarter to trail 24-8 after one quarter of play.

The Longhorns got nice contributions from 6-foot-6 center Matt Davies, who scored five points off the bench in the second and nine points in the game. Senior guard Alex Ellinwood also slashed his way to five points off the bench in the quarter, giving the Longhorns a fighting chance in the second period.

Westmont took a 36-18 lead into the half after a gritty 12-10 quarter, with Westmont outscoring Leigh by only two points.

Barton got things back on track for Westmont to open the second half, swishing home a deep trey, then stealing the ball at midcourt and finding Scott for the double pump finish at the rim pushing the Warriors lead to 39-21.

Westmont doesn't have a ton of size, but lanky center Talley held his own, blocking six shots on the night to keep things difficult for the Leigh front court.

Tyler Ni checked into the game in the third quarter, as the Longhorns found some more bench magic to pull themselves back into the game. Ni scored nine points in the second half, including six points in the third quarter, making the score 46-33 Westmont going into the fourth quarter.

Westmont closed out Leigh in the fourth quarter, getting the run of big shots they needed to extend their lead back over 15 points, earning the victory.

"We live and die by the three-point shot," Gerth said. "Right now we're living pretty good because we shoot over 40 percent from three this season."

With the defeat, Leigh falls to 1-3 in league play and 4-10 overall. Ni and Davies each scored nine points to lead the Longhorns. Shawn Sanders scored eight points.

Leigh had opened the week with an impressive 58-46 win over Pioneer behind 17 points by Andre Dorsey and 14 by Ni.

Dorsey, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, had a pair of threes among his seven field goals and added a point at the free-throw line, and Ni, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, also had a pair of threes among five field goals and added two points at the line.

Rob Pappas and Sanders added six points apiece, Ellinwood and John Dietz hit four each, Tyler Campbell popped a three and Davies and Nick Taylor had two each.

The Longhorns will host Santa Teresa on Jan. 24, 7 p.m., before heading to Oak Grove on Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m.

Leigh girls

The Leigh girls, meanwhile, dropped two games last week--falling 72-47 to Evergreen and 50-38 to Westmont--to slip to 1-3 in Mt. Hamilton play and to 5-10 overall.

Junior guard Beatrice Conejero had a three among seven buckets from the floor and added three free throws to finish with 18 points to lead Leigh against Evergreen.

Tina Allen supported with nine points, Sophie Torrecillas had eight, Katy Breslin and Marissa Rode four apiece and Yuri Okamura and Jessica Massey two each.

Leigh was to host Gunderson on Tuesday and will head to Santa Teresa on Jan. 24, 7 p.m.

Branham girls

Over at Branham, the girls split a couple of Santa Teresa Division games, beating Lincoln 49-46 after losing 70-33 to Silver Creek.

The Bruins, 1-3 in the division and 2-12 this year, followed Adi Madzar's hot hand to the win over the Lions. The 5-foot-9 senior pitched in 16 points to lead all Branham scorers in the win. Nichole Bertolacci had two threes among her 12 points, and Natalie Tran joined the others in double digits with 10. Angela Ingram had a three among her seven points, and Sabrina Clay hit four.

Clay tossed in 11 points and Bertolacci had 10, including a three, but the Bruins fell to the Raiders. A. Madzara added five points in the game, Ingram four, Tran two and Bina Madzar one.

Branham boys

Gino Valletta poured in 18 points, but the Branham boys lost 55-46 to unbeaten Independence last week. The Bruins, who came back to edge Lincoln 56-53 later in the week, are 2-2 in the West Valley Division and 5-10 this year.

Valletta, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, had four three among six field goals and added two points at the line to lead the Bruins with 18 against the 76ers. Robby Anderson and Ryan Anderson added six points each for Branham, Nick Rossetta and Matt Weber had five apiece, Keoni Heidger hit four and Matt Gorham had two.