Los Gatos Weekly-Times Photograph by Kathy De La Torre Los Gatos forward Erin Cushing plays tight defense against Kristin Voelcker of Leigh in preseason action last week. The Cats beat the Longhorns 49-38. Test begins for Wildcats Gatos-Palo Alto game on Bay TV By Dick Sparrer It begins for real this week. And the boys basketball team at Los Gatos is in for a real test. The Wildcats will get a look at both of the co-favorites in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League when the league season begins this week. Gatos heads to Milpitas for its league opener on Jan. 5, 7 p.m., before returning home on Friday to host Palo Alto in a 7:30 p.m. game that will be telecast live over Bay TV. "They look like the top teams in our league," said Los Gatos head coach Jim Marino about his club's upcoming foes, Milpitas and Paly. "We're going to get thrown right into the fire this week." But, then, the Cats aren't bad, either. Los Gatos wrapped up a solid preseason with an 11-4 record, despite two losses last week at the Soquel Winter Classic. "I think it was a good preseason for us," said Marino. "We played some good teams, some teams that I hope will prepare us for league." Los Gatos opened the Soquel Classic with a 70-53 win over Watsonville last week. Matt Gingery poured in 21 points, and Beau Knight had three three-pointers among his nine field goals to finish with 21. "They both shot the ball pretty well for us," said Marino. Gingery also led the Cats on the boards with 11 rebounds, and Jonathan Groff had a team-high five assists to go with his 11 points. Ben Kane had five points, including a three, and Jeremy Sontag added four. David Whiteside, Stephen Pulley, Devan Denton and Ben Winkelman had two points each. "We controlled the tempo of the game," said Marino, "which we didn't do against either Santa Cruz or Sequoia. They were both quicker and faster up the floor than we were." Gatos lost 73-47 to unbeaten Santa Cruz in the tournament semifinals, then lost 58-43 to Sequoia in the third-place game. The Wildcats made a valiant comeback against Santa Cruz. They trailed 11-0 in the first period, but cut the lead to six by the half and tied the game 39-39 in the third quarter. "But all of sudden we missed six shots in a row," said Marino. "They came down and made six shots in a row, and one was a three-pointer. So we were down by 13, all in a matter of two minutes. We played catch-up the rest of the game." Knight hit two threes on his way to 12 points, and Gingery had nine points and seven rebounds. Whiteside, who had earned a place on the all-tournament team at the Ed Hopkins Classic in Fairfield a week earlier, supported with nine points and a team-high four assists. Winkelman added six points, Denton four, Groff three and Kane and Pulley two apiece. Gatos lost 58-43 to Sequoia in the final game of the tournament. "They shot the ball really well against us," said Marino. "We had a tough time guarding them. They're a tough match-up for us." Knight led the Cats with 15 points, including a three, and he pulled down five rebounds. Denton hit eight points, and Gingery had seven points and nine rebounds. Groff also hit seven points, and Whiteside, Kane and Pulley added two each. Whiteside and Groff shared the team lead with four assists apiece. Gatos girls fall The Los Gatos girls lost two straight games to finish the preseason, falling 42-38 to Saratoga and 59-26 to Leland to slip to 8-5 for the year. The Wildcats opened play last week with a 49-38 win over Leigh, but the lost by 23 a day later to Leland. Nancy Shishido tossed in four buckets, including a three-pointer, to finish with nine points against Leland. Trina Mills had a three among her five points, and Kim Pugliese hit four points. Sara Peetz, Kristin Ozawa, Erin Cushing and Sara Clark added two points each in the loss. The Cats were down by just three after a period, 15-12, but the unbeaten Chargers outscored Gatos 18-8 in the second and blanked the Cats 11-0 in the third on the road to the lopsided win. Los Gatos wrapped up the preseason with a tough four-point loss to rival Saratoga. Shishido canned a pair of threes on her way to a team-high 14 points. Mills joined her in double digits with 12 points. Gillan Waddas added four points for the Cats. Gatos trailed by four after a period, but matched Saratoga's nine points in the second quarter and outscored the Falcons 12-7 in the third to go in front by a point. But Saratoga topped the Cats 14-9 in the final period to win by four. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 6, 1999. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.