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.
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