The Wildcats could have a great night, as they did last Tuesday night at Palo Alto. Or it could go the other way, as it did on Friday against Milpitas.

The Cats opened the week with an impressive 58-55 win over the Vikings, but they finished up Friday with a disappointing 39-25 loss to the Trojans.

"It was two completely different games," said Marino. "We're like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde team. We can look so good one night and so bad the next. It's frustrating."

Marino was hoping for a good night Feb. 4, when the Wildcats play their only game of the week against Homestead, 7 p.m. at Los Gatos.

Gatos had a good one against Palo Alto, coming back from a four-point deficit late in the game to beat the Vikings by three.

"We scored 34 points inside the paint," said Marino. "We really got the ball inside to our big guys and hurt [Palo Alto] inside."

Aaron Goldfarb led the Cats with 20 points and added eight rebounds. Nik Kay supported with 19 points and a team-high 17 rebounds. Goldfarb jammed eight field goals and added four free throws, and Kay hit eight shots from the floor and had three points at the free-throw line.

In all, Los Gatos shot 49 percent (20 of 41) from the field. Chris Clock had three of those field goals, two from three-point range, and finished with 10 points in the win. Clock led the Cats with seven assists.

Mike Robards tossed in four points for Gatos and "did a great job defensively coming off the bench," said Marino.

Kyle Gisler fired in a three-point bucket, and Matt Martini had two points and four assists for Gatos.

Palo Alto jumped out to a 16-12 lead in the first quarter, but the Cats outscored Paly 18-9 in the second to lead 30-25 at intermission. The Vikings took the edge in the third quarter of the seesaw game, topping the Cats 18-11 to lead 43-41, but Los Gatos came on strong in the fourth to win it.

It was a different story on Friday.

"It was a very physical game, and both teams played great defense," said Marino of the Milpitas game. "We just couldn't score."

"If someone told me before the game that we would hold Milpitas to 39 points, I like our chances," added the coach. "But we couldn't get the ball inside."

Los Gatos shot just 35 percent (9 of 36) from the field and 42 percent at the free-throw line (5 of 12) while turning the ball over 14 times.

Clock hit a pair of threes but finished with just eight points for the night. He led the club with four assists.

Kay added five points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats. Goldfarb had four points, and Gisler, Rory Bauer, Fletcher Anderson and Chris Danser had two each.

"It was a very, very frustrating game," said Marino. "Now we've got to bounce back and try to find the way we played against Palo Alto."

Los Gatos slipped to 3-4 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with the loss. But no one is running away in the division, and the Cats trail the leaders by just two games in the loss column with five to play.

Fremont and Wilcox have two losses apiece, and Palo Alto, Gunn and Milpitas have three each.

"It's pretty balanced," said Marino. "But we've got to get it together if we're going to have a shot at it."