The Los Gatos High School boys basketball team has found its winning ways again, as it opened Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division play with a pair of wins last week.
Los Gatos thumped Wilcox 79-38, then overwhelmed Homestead 81-42 to improve its record to 11-3 overall and 2-0 in De Anza Division action.
The Wildcats now have a three-game winning streak leading into its game on Jan. 12 at Mountain View. Prior to the winning streak, Los Gatos had lost three of its previous four games.
In its De Anza opener on Jan. 3, Los Gatos took a 21-5 first-quarter lead and entered halftime with a 40-15 advantage. Dylan Belquist scored 28 points, including 12 of 18 field-goal shooting, and also grabbed eight rebounds. Alex Braken-Guelke added 17 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Additionally, Robert Nelson had nine points and eight rebounds for Los Gatos, which shot 54-percent from the floor and had 38 rebounds.
Against Homestead on Jan. 5, the Wildcats were able to spread its scoring around. It had four players produced double-digit points – Belquist (30), Cade Taormina (17), Braken-Guelke (15) and Frank Polisso (10).
Los Gatos coach Nick Ward lauded the offensive performance of Taormina and Polisso. “It’s really nice to see those guys have really good games,” said Ward about the two seniors.
Taormina was 6 for 9 from the field, including 4 for 6 from three-point range. Polisso was 5 for 10 from the field.
The duo also produced double-doubles in the game. Taormina had a team-high 10 rebounds, and Polisso passed for a team-high 10 assists.
“I think he is the most unselfish point guard I’ve seen,” said Ward about Polisso. “He has such great court vision, and he’s a great passer.”
Braken-Guelke was 6 for 6 from the free-throw line and also had seven rebounds. Belquist has another dominant game, as he added nine rebounds, five assists and four steals to his 30 points.
Girls Basketball
Like the boys team, the Wildcats also produced a 2-0 start to their SCVAL-De Anza Division season.
Los Gatos beat Gunn 57-45 on Jan. 5 after opening De Anza Division play with a 44-36 win over Wilcox on Jan. 2. On Jan. 6, Los Gatos fell to Carlmont 43-36.
“I’m generally pleased. We had a really strong win on Friday and on Saturday, it was a close game,” said Los Gatos coach Matthew Holm about his team’s play last weekend.
The Wildcats played against Gunn and Carlmont without high-scoring sophomore Sabrina Belquist, who missed the games due to a foot injury, Holm said.
Against Gunn, Los Gatos came back from a 24-20 halftime deficit with a dominant 24-7 third-quarter scoring advantage.
“We made some adjustments at halftime that seemed to work well, and we came out with a lot of energy in the third quarter,” Holm said. “We looked for more opportunities to push the tempo.”
The Wildcats had four players score in double figures in the game, led by Alexa Wong with 16. Paige Fronczak added 14 points, and both Makayla Farrington and Olivia Lo produced 12 points.
In their next game, the Wildcats led 29-26 entering the final quarter, but the Scots outscored Los Gatos 17-7 in the fourth quarter.
“They increased the intensity and we weren’t able to match it,” Holm said.
Fronczak led the Wildcats in scoring with 13 points, and Wong added 11 points.
