Escazu 64 San Ramon 63

Michael Jackson being guarded by Amaurys Ripool

San Ramon swept us in the semi-finals of Apertura; the games were close but San Ramon had the clear upper hand. They eventually lost to Barva in the Finals in a series that went down to the wire. San Ramon's has a great combination of size and speed, but their calling card is the frontcourt duo of Daniel Simmons and Jefney Anderson. In the "offseason" they decided to go all-in on big men by prying away Hernol Gardener, a 6'9'' big man who's played in several leagues abroad.  They now have five post players that would start for any team in the league.

So as the second game of the Clausura, an early away game San Ramon was a measuring stick for us. On top of that our fourth post, Dario Fraile, had a slight hamstring pull at the end of Monday's practice. So there we were Tuesday night, a little short in the post going against the league's biggest team. The game was a tale of three parts.



In the first part, both teams squared off against each other in the first half. San Ramon took a very early lead, but we soon raised our intensity to take a slim lead. By the end of the first quarter we were up by seven points...but San Ramon shaved six points off the lead in a matter of 40 seconds. The rest of the first half was even between the two teams...an exhibition of gritty, sloppy basketball. Layups were missed at point blank range as the defenses were tight on both ends.

The second part of the game was the third quarter were San Ramon used a nifty zone defense to frustrate our offense and slowly build a double digit lead. Our team lost its composure and our execution was deficient, resulting in a streak of poor possessions while San Ramon kept grinding away. By the end of the third quarter they had built a very comfortable double digit lead. It felt like the game had slipped away in the third quarter.

We sat three of our starters to get one final push for the end, as Bustamante, Lacayo and Reinner Little came on. With some fresh legs out there we scrambed on the defensive end and started chipping away at the lead, getting it down to six points with about four minutes to go. By that time I went back to our starting lineup. And then we started making some big baskets. David Carnegie got hot in the final quarter with his jumper, while Ike St. Rose hit some timely baskets to get us to a one point deficit under two minutes. Michael Jackson had two steals in that span, yet both times he forced the long pass on the break. Our defense somehow held each time. On one of the final plays we got a great look for Alonso Sanchez, only to see Hernol rotate over and swat Alonso's shot to the upper deck, leaving about 34 seconds on the game clock. We then had a final set piece resulting in a good look for Ike that bounced off the rim. San Ramon corralled the ball...and then our guys trapped and somehow forced a long pass that seemed to hang in the air for an eternity. David Carnegie came out of nowhere to intercept the ball at half court and drive the ball in for a layup to take a one point lead.

With 20 seconds to go, San Ramon called a time out to set up one last play. The ball came to Hernol Gardener who had not one but two good looks at the basket as our defenders swarmed him. The second shot bounced around before Michael Jackson was able to control it. The San Ramon guys tried to foul Michael, who somehow got the ball of to Sanchez who ran out the last two seconds and an unlikely victory.

Game Notes

• Besides providing some late game heroics, David Carnegie led our scoring with 20. Daniel Simmons scored 15 for a very balanced attack from San Ramon. 
• What was a rumor has now been confirmed. Liceo de Costa Rica has dropped out of the tournament. LCR is a storied franchise that has been grossly mismanaged the last few years; even though they won a regional title, that pursuit was a major financial drain from which it has never recovered. It's a real shame for the league. When I started in CR basketball it was a robust 12 league team with weekly televised teams; now it's a six team league that has to beg to get TV coverage. It feels like we're going backwards. I still don't understand how the powers that be have not grasped the direction that basketball is headed in this country.