Escazu 77 San Ramon 78

A trip and a very nasty bout with the flu had me sidelined for three weeks. In the meantime, the team had some exciting wins against Grecia and Barva, putting us on top of the standings.

Last Tuesday we traveled to San Ramon for our showdown with the defending champ. In my early years in the league, the toughest road venue was Limon. A hot, humid gym a stone's throw away from the ocean. Their crowds were not only into the game, but also very knowledgeable about hoops. And back then, they had some great teams. Just a tough place to play. Now that they're out of the league, the reigning title of toughest place to play has become San Ramon. Their administration has done an excellent job of drawing crowds to their gym; games in San Ramon feel like real basketball games and not glorified exhibitions. 

San Ramon came out of the gate quickly, attacking the basket. In the first five minutes they jumped out to an eight point lead. Some defensive stops on our part led to some buckets and we quickly erased the lead. The rest of the second half was a back-and-forth affair. Michael Jackson and Nino Williams were trading big baskets. Isaac Conejo converted a three point play at the end of the first half,

reducing our lead to one point.

 

Nick Leon came alive in the third quarter from the outside with Michael continuing to make some tough baskets. Out lead swelled to nine points as Jorge Arguello called a time out to settle his guys. San Ramon turned up the defensive intensity, switching around their assignments. Slowly but surely, they whittled out lead behind baskets from Giorgio Milligan and Jefney Anderson. With forty seconds to go, Jerson Harris putback an offensive rebound giving San Ramon its first lead of the half. Michael Jackson scored a quick basket to take back the lead. Niño Williams scored the go-ahead basket for San Ramon on the ensuing play. On our final half court possession, we had a lapse in execution and despite corralling San Ramon's final miss, we were unable to get a last shot up. 

Notes

-Michael Jackson led out scoring with 32 points with Nick Leon scoring 22. 

-Nino Williams led the San Ramon scoring with 22 points. Isaac Conejo had 18 points and eight assists.  

Escazu 72 Latina 71

Sometimes a loss feels like a win. Sometimes a win feels like a loss. This last game felt like the latter. 

Now I could make excuses. Michael Jackson was in Panama playing in the Ligas de America. Three other rotation players were away for personal reasons. We had to play our sub-23 guys some heavy minutes. Rosich has some bad sushi. Sure, all that may have factored in, but when you get down to it the U Latina played a better game. We sidestepped disaster. 

The Latina guys were very intense for the entire game, capitalizing on lackadaisical effort the entire game. Just when we would score back-to-back baskets and possibly start a run, here came Latina with a gutty basket. I had seen videos of Latina, so I knew they played hard. Usually they just ran out of bodies, letting the other team go on a big run that opened the floodgates. 

The floodgates never opened. Jeff Dixon picked up some early fouls. In came Juan Carlos Rosich who had a big game against San Ramon, but had been sick all week with food poisoning. Back-to-back offensive fouls soon got him into foul trouble as well. Dixon came in, got called for an offensive foul and then got called for a technical. Three minutes into the second quarter my starting center had four fouls, and his backup was on the bench with three. Dixon's technical was not only costly from a personnel standpoint, it gave Latina the ball back immediately, letting them take the first lead of the game as they scored six points unanswered. 

Latina big man Jose West got busy inside, taking advance of his size. We went into the half down two...having played a our poorest half of basketball on both ends. 

Until the second half that is. After scoring three baskets in the first half minute, we went on a prolonged drought mixing in bad shots with balls coming back out. The Latina guys were setting great screens and making quick cuts, putting together a nice run to build a six point lead. Diego Loria got whistled for a foul, which he then proceeded to argue with the ref, earning himself a technical. Another free throw and possession, on which they scored...suddenly the lead was back to 10. 

In the final quarter we started making a determined effort to attack the basket. We got the lead down to six, but ULatina was resilient. A three pointer with 4:42 to go gave them a twelve point lead. Adrian Chavarria and Ernie Forrester led the defensive charge, getting some crucial stops. A couple of old fashioned three point plays halved the lead to six in 20 seconds. A couple more stops let us whittle the lead to one. With 24 seconds to go Nick Leon made a key defensive play, chasing down a Latina player to prevent a layup. Jeff Spencer, masquerading as a post nabbed a key rebound and Nick was able to push the ball up for the go-ahead basket with four seconds to go. A desperation half court shot came up short...the U Latina players in shock that they had let their first win slip through their fingers. 

Notes

-Nick Leon led our scoring with 22, while Jose West led a balanced effort with 17. 

-Jimmy Garcia is back on the sidelines coaching the U Latina, which helps explain their gritty play. Jimmy was one of the best point guards in CR hoops.