San Ramon sputtered through that first swing of the schedule, dropping three games and not playing high quality basketball despite having an impressive payroll (albeit with a key injury to Daniel Simmons). It's hard being the champ and getting everyone's best shot. The Christmas break was a welcome respite as San Ramon was able to work on their team and tweak their roste. They got rid of their American player, Carlos Jefferson who never seemed to fit in despite an impressive resume, and swapped him out for another American player Chris Giles.
The teams traded baskets early in the first quarter. Veteran Franklyn Ferguson was active early on for Barva. We were getting good looks at the baskets, but not quite converting all our opportunities around the basket. Our point guard, Alonso Sanchez, picked up his second foul bringing Dwayne Grant off the bench. Soon enough it was evident that Grant's leg injury against Limon was not fully healed, as he had hard time accelerating and cutting. The first quarter finished 21-14 as San Ramon went on a 8-2 run to break out a lead.
In the second quarter newcomer Chris Giles knifed through our defense supplying some easy points, extending the San Ramon lead to 10. Diego Loria came off the bench to supply some instant offense with John Chappell and David Carnegie crashing the boards, and we were able to go to the locker room at the half down by 4 on a big three pointer by Javier Bustamante.
San Ramon got a couple baskets early in the third quarter. Then they started a death march to the free throw lines, getting sent to the line on six straight possessions. We hung around keeping it a two possession game to close out the third quarter. In the fourth quarter our foul trouble kept getting worse as several of our players got to four fouls. After one particular dubious call, Sanchez got Ted up, letting San Ramon shoot four free throws to build an eleven point lead and never look back, eventually winning by 17.
Game Notes
- San Ramon shot 41 free throws, while we went to the line 20 times. Both teams shot very well, which is rare in our league.
- Diego Loria and Dave Millinier led our scoring with 14 points apiece. Chris Giles, in his second league game, scored 24 in a very efficient manner. I'm getting a deja vu all over again; last year San Ramon replaced Darrell St Rose (out with injury) with Greg Platter and it made an enormous difference in their season.
- I get very frustrated how they ref our center John Chappell in this league. Twice he got clean blocks and got called for fouls by a ref out of position. San Ramon's center, Jefeney Anderson, who is a very good defensive player in his own right, gets much more latitude with his contact.
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