The Paly boys’ varsity basketball team beat the Gunn Titans, 69-27 in Titan territory on Friday night in the second league game of the season against Gunn.
Pumped by Paly victories in the girl’s and boys JV games, as well the girls’ varsity, which came down to be a real thriller with the girls’ wining, 40-39, the boys were ready to play.
The varsity game kicked off with the first point of the game scored by Paly’s junior forward Cooper Miller on his second free throw after being fouled by a Gunn player. Paly senior forward Greg Walder then scored two, but Gunn quickly put points on the scoreboard when sophomore David Riley was fouled and made both free throws. Riley then popped a three-pointer, to which Paly(21-1, 8-0) responded when senior Brian Baskauskas popped in his own. Not to be outdone, Riley hit in another three. First quarter ended with Paly junior Jeremy Lin shooting a "hail mary" from half court. The ball hit a beam on the roof and bounced back to the ground at the buzzer, Gunn leading 8-10.
The second quarter commenced with intricate passing patterns, causing the ball to constantly switch directions. Highlights came from reverse lay-ups by Gunn senior Brennan Blair and Paly’s Baskauskas. Paly slowly took back possession of the game, and lead 24-21 at the half.
However, the real game began in the third quarter when Baskauskas hit three shots in a row. Paly was on fire and went on a 37-0 streak, which lasted from mid-third quarter into the fourth. Lin, using his smaller size, intercepted and stole the ball away from Gunn players, and with assistance from Paly senior Martin Mouton, got the ball to Paly junior Steven Brown, who put it in the net. "Steven was on fire," Mouton said. "He had a good game."
According to Paly coach Peter Diepenbrock, Stevens’ 25 points came as no surprise. "All of us on the team have seen Steven do that during practice. We know he’s capable of doing that."
"We came out strong defensively, and were in the zone offensively," said Brown, who had a game high record five 3-pointers and also scored a game high 25 points.
Diepenbrock explained his tactics: "Basically we decided to increase our defensive pressure, and once we got a couple of steals, the momentum went our way and kept going our way. That led to some easy baskets that we didn’t get out in the first half."
Lin agreed: "Coach Diepenbrock told us to pressure them and to get as many steals as possible. We did that, and took off."
Paly players then proceeded to show off their skills, with alleyoops by Lin, Miller, and Baskuaskas, respectively. However, the true highlight of the game was yet to come.
In the third quarter, Gunn junior Matt Johnson fell for Miller’s fake pump, and, in jumping to block him, landed on top of Miller in a seated position, while Miller was bent over and coming back up from the fake. The Paly fans went wild.
"It wasn’t on purpose," Gunn assistant coach James Reilly said with a laugh. "Matt played hard and got a little excited."
Miller said, "I pumped fake and he went for it."
Paly ended the third in complete domination over Gunn, 55-21.
Gunn finally scored a minute into the fourth, with Gunn sophomore Peter Jordan scoring two. Trying hard to rally back, Gunn had to face Paly’s defense. "We dominated in the second half," Baskauskas said. "We didn’t come out as we wanted in the first [half], but in the second we turned defense into offense, and went on a 37-0 streak." Baskausas scored the games’ second highest number of points, 11, which was a lot less than his 25 points at the last showdown between Gunn and Paly on Jan. 16, where Paly shut out Gunn in a 65-37 victory.
Paly senior Amar Mighlani added to Baskauskas’s comment, saying, "The beginning was rough, but we got our good heads into the game and were more focused."
Gunn’s Jordan was only able to score four points, with Riley scoring 9 points for Gunn.
"We forced too many turnovers," Diepenbrock said. "They (Gunn) didn’t have a chance to give him (Jordan) the shots. It was really a team effort."
Assistant Coach Reilley said, "Peter worked hard — Paly kept a lot of focus on him and had a good game plan to guard him."
Gunn was limited to scoring six points in the fourth quarter. Paly juniors Brad Lehman and Kevin Trimble also shot in one three pointer apiece, quieting the Gunn fans who were calling on them to "prove it."
Despite a shot clock violation by Paly and fouls on both sides, Paly went on to win, 69-27. But Gunn wasn’t deterred by the loss, and is already looking to the future. "We have three sophomore starters and are going to dominate for the next two years," Riley said.
Assistant Coach Reilly said, "We played a good first half, gave good effort, but we got a little tired. We hope to take out first half into out next game."
"Palo Alto is big and physical. We have a young team, and it would help if we had seniors like Baskauskas and Walder," Reilly said.
Paly will take on the Homestead Mustangs at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Paly.