Sanatura 85 San Ramon 107

Greg Platter slicing through the defense

After a week of family vacation, I came back to a very important game: at home against San Ramon with first place on the line. In what is clearly becoming a three team race this season, this game had a lot of implications for the upcoming Clausura playoffs: home court, bracket position and momentum. One team showed up primed for this important matchup. Unfortunately, that was not our team.



San Ramon came in blazing, making shots from all over the court. Greg Platter, who played his college ball at Long Beach State, had close to a perfect game, racking up 37 points and close to 10 assists if not more (I don't trust the official tally). We threw pretty much all our perimeter defenders at him, and he still found ways to carve up our defense. When it wasn't Platter doing damage, it was Jefney Anderson showing a variety of moves in the post. This was easily the best game I've seen Jefney play against us; he was a factor on both ends of the court and was able to avoid foul trouble until late in the game when the result was well defined. San Ramon was particularly effective from the outside, making 10 three pointers in the first half. Guard Carlos Santamaria shot 6 for 8 from three point, capitalizing on defensive breakdowns. San Ramon went on a 21-2 run to close the second quarter that broke the game wide open, giving them a 30 point lead at the half.

Contrasting San Ramon's hot shooting (it was over 60% at the half), we were ice cold from the field, shooting 25% overall. That's easily our worst shooting night of the season. Part of it was a very active San Ramon defense anchored by Jefney in the middle. Part of it was questionable shot selection as we got desperate with the big gap. And then another part were near misses, particularly early in the game. In the first quarter in particular, we missed some very makeable shots while San Ramon hit every shot, busting out to a big early lead.  San Ramon learned from our previous encounter; in that game they broke out to a big lead only to let us back in the game. This time they kept their foots on our neck and didn't let up. Every mini run was met by some counter on their part. At one point we got it down to thirteen in the third quarter, only to see them make a couple of threes to get the lead back to twenty.

The final score says we lost by 18, but it wasn't that close. The refs sent us to the free throw line charitably with the game well out of reach. It was an old-fashioned ass kicking.

Game Notes

• We got called for three technicals, reflecting a total loss of poise on our part. I can't remember the last time one of my teams got called for three technicals. It was probably my first season with Escazu when I had Pitico and Huesos on the same team.  Was the reffing bad? Sure, but it's generally bad in this league. We wasted more energy arguing with the refs than hustling for the ball. We didn't lose cause of the reffing.
• After a slow start, Michael Jackson had 33 points in a losing cause, but overall it was not a good game for Michael. His first quarter was very forgettable.  
• Jefney Anderson had 20 points and 14 rebounds. I haven't seen the tally for blocks but it must have been 6 or 7 at least. Very close to a triple double. 
• This game illustrates the sizable gap between our league and NCAA D1. Greg Platter had a nice career at Long Beach State, a solid program in the Big West program. Overnight, it could be argued that he's the best player in our league. 
• We have two brutal road games this weekend at Perez Zeledon and at Limon...we'll see how the team reacts.