LOS ALTOS HILLS — Unranked in the preseason poll, the Foothill College men’s basketball team currently sits at No. 10 in the state.
But if Wednesday night proved anything, it’s that the final three weeks prior to the NorCal playoffs will truly test the Owls.
“I knew this was my most talented team that I’ve had since I’ve been at Foothill,” said Matt Stanley, in his fifth season at the helm. “But it’s all relative depending at how strong every team is. … We don’t talk about wins and losses a whole heck of a lot. If we’re taking care of what we can control and trying to get better, then winning usually takes care of itself.”
This week got off to an auspicious start with an 80-77 loss on the road at Las Positas College in Livermore.
Foothill (17-7, 6-2 Coast North) still finds itself a game ahead in the standings of rival Canada College (13-11, 5-3), but that could possibly change after Friday night.
That’s when top-ranked City College of San Francisco (23-1, 7-0) visits the Los Altos Hills campus for a 7 p.m. tip.
“Their whole team is a bunch of 6-5 guys that can jump out of the building,” Foothill point guard Matt McAndrews said. “We don’t even have a lot of guys that can dunk or anything like that, but we have a lot of guys that are hard workers and we’ve got to give credit to the coaches for that. They do a good job of preparing us.”
The Owls underwent growing pains last season, with McAndrews limited to seven games by a knee injury while a bunch of freshmen took their lumps during a 12-15 campaign.
The turnaround didn’t surprise anyone on the veteran roster, including sophomore Alex Gil-Hernandez, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard out of Gunn High in Palo Alto.
“A lot of these guys I played in CCS,” said Gil-Hernandez, 19, whose former teammate with the Titans in Chris Russell is also a starter on the backcourt at Foothill. “We have a great group of guys, great characters and I think we just clicked altogether.”
“Last year we had a bunch of guys that would hang before practice, after practice, after games,” said McAndrews, 22, who graduated from Mitty in 2014. “And we definitely gained a bond from that, so that helped a lot with our team chemistry and it’s showing out on the court this year, for sure.”
Offense doesn’t appear to be an issue when it comes to the Owls.
That’s evident from the 1-2 punch of McAndrews and Gil-Hernandez, with both nearly averaging 20 points per game.
“They’re always looking for each other,” Stanley said. “They know that if one is leading the break, the other one can finish it. There’s a good trust between those two that helps each one excel.”
Matchups tend to determine which one takes the shot every trip down the floor.
“It’s just kind of finding our spots,” McAndrews said. “We find our own ways to score the ball and make plays.”
“I think we have some different aspects to our game, but I like to drive and he likes to drive,” Gil-Hernandez said. “And we’re really fast, so we like to get out and run. I think we’re very complementary to each other in a lot of ways.”
If teams attempt to clog the lane, Foothill is not afraid to let it fly from beyond the arc. The Owls average more than 25 treys per game, converting over 35 percent of the time.
“It makes it a lot easier for us, especially with the shooters,” McAndrews said. “They spread out the floor and give us a driving lane.”
Airing it out almost twice as much than last year is Gil-Hernandez — with good reason.
As a freshman, he only shot 22.2 percent from long range. Now, he’s up to 36.0 percent, unleashing him as a weapon on the perimeter.
“His outside shooting has really improved and so has his decision making,” Stanley said. “And it’s allowed him to be the player that he is right now, really playing well for us.”
The frontcourt received an added boost with the addition of a 6-5 power forward out of Carlmont High in Belmont in Joe Pitocchi, who spent the 2015-16 season on the Canada roster.
But size in the post tends to be a never-ending struggle for the Owls.
“We’re short, as per usual, but we’ve got a lot of sophomores that really understand our defensive concepts,” Stanley said. “And we’ve been working on it for two years, so we’re kind of seeing the benefits of that.”
When it comes to rebounding, his coach says that Gil-Hernandez “has a really high motor that does not stop,” which explains why he pulls down a team-high 7.5 boards per game.
But he gets plenty of helps in that department.
“It really eliminates the factor that we’re the smallest team in the league, because we all help each other out on the rebounding in the defensive end,” said McAndrews, who averages 4.5 rebounds and leads the team with 2.0 steals per game.
“It’s just a matter of focus,” Gil-Hernandez said. “You can always get better on defense.”
Time is running out on the season, with five games left. That includes a regular-season finale at Canada that could prove vital for playoff seeding.
Neither McAndrews nor Gil-Hernandez is contemplating the end, but that didn’t mean they avoided getting nostalgic.
“I’ve been here for four years, so for me it’s been a humbling experience because I came out of Mitty,” said McAndrews, a CIF Open Division state runner-up as a junior with the Monarchs. “I was expecting to go one year and leave, but it’s helped me learn so much and it’s helped me create bonds with all these great guys.”
“I’ve matured these past two years more than at any time of my life,” Gil-Hernandez said. “And these coaches have really helped me out in just becoming a man outside the court and becoming more responsible, and that’s helped my game a lot.”
