National Finals Game 4: San Ramon 78 Sanatura 71

An overflowing crowd awaited the fourth game of the National Finals in the San Ramon gym last Friday night. Our leading scorer Michael Jackson watched helplessly from the sidelines while serving out his one-game suspension for striking Greg Platter at the end of Game 3. Henry Martinez started in his place and tallied 19 points, but it wasn't quite enough to pull out the win on the road.

Three times San Ramon lept out to ten point leads, and three times we chipped away to make it a one possession game. We just couldn't make the plays to go on top, and San Ramon repealed our advance every time. Greg Platter feasted on our turnovers, scoring 26 points mostly off fast break layups. With four minuted to go we had narrowed the San Ramon lead to two points, but we were never quite able to make the go-ahead score. Henry shot a corner three that rolled out of the basket. Daniel Simmons then hit a big basket to make it a six point game. After a basket from Jeff Dixon to close the lead to 4 with less than a minute to go, we needed a crucial defensive stop. And we got it...only to see Luis Conejo sneak in for a vital offensive rebound and retain possession for San Ramon effectively sealing the game and sending the crowd into a celebratory frenzy.

Game Notes

• John Chappell kept us in the game with a double-double (17 points & 14 rebounds) against San Ramon's rugged front court. He was aggressive all night, one of his better offensive game in the time that I've coached him. 
• We experienced serious problems to close out quarters. San Ramon went on runs to finish the first and third quarter, as well as a crucial basket to close the half. In tight games like these, those are just insurmountable break downs.