Vintage comes back from 18-point deficit thanks to full-court press, huge second half to beat Rancho Cotate in thriller
By Kyle Foster
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Most of the time, anything over ten points is hard to come back from. Coming back from something even larger than that is one heck of a rally.
On Tuesday night at Crusher Gym, this is what the Vintage boys basketball team did as they beat Rancho Cotate-Rohnert Park, 54-50, in a non-league thriller.
In the second half, Vintage (6-3) was able to come back thanks to their full-court press which forced the Cougars into making turnovers. After all, they forced a bunch of turnovers that led to either fast-break layups or shots from the free-throw line. It’s fitting that Vintage did this one the same night when the Golden State Warriors rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat the Boston Celtics in overtime.
On top of that, the way they forced these turnovers by using the press was to take away the middleman who was cutting across the center of the floor. It forced Rancho Cotate (5-5) to make risky cross-court passes and sped them up, which also led to turnovers.
“It was very crucial because Rancho started to stall and run the clock,” Vintage head coach Ben Gongora explained of the press and how it helped the Crushers claw back. “They were up big, and they wanted the clock to go to zero and go home with the W. So we had to turn up our pressure, speed up the game, get more shot opportunities forced them to shoot quicker shots. Instead of you know, five seconds left on the shot clock, we need them shooting 25 seconds left on the shot clock, 30 seconds left on the shot clock, and we were able to do that by forcing them chasing them if you will, with traps and rotations.”
Overall in the second half, the Crushers outscored Rancho Cotate 40-20 after going down 30-14 at the break. In the second half, Vintage also went to the line 12 times after getting to the line twice in the first two quarters. They gained their first lead of the game when Nate Marroquin hit a three-pointer that bounced on the rim and went in from the top of the key with 20.5 left to play to go up 52-50.
“I think their attitude (changed),” Gongora said of the second half and what changed. “I think we showed up and kind of judged Rancho and didn’t give them enough credit. We didn’t think they were gonna fight, we thought we were just going to show up and just magically win the game, and that’s not how sports works. You have to play the game. I think some of these guys got caught up in the moment a little and a credit to Rancho I tell the team, ‘The most powerful thing in the world is a belief.’ At halftime, Rancho believed that they could win. Actually, even before halftime, probably after the first quarter, they believed they could win.
“So we dug a hole for ourselves,” Gongora continued. “Some guys made personal choices to step up their game and increase their defense and make a difference, and we were able to pull it out. But unnecessarily close.”
However, the comeback was merely a thought at one point due to a very bad end to the first half. In the second quarter, Vintage scored just one bucket. At one point in the quarter, Rancho led 16-14 before ripping off 14 straight points to get a huge lead at the break. The run in total was a 16-0 run for the Cougars that spanned two quarters as they scored the opening bucket of the second half to go up by 18.
It also didn’t help that at this point, anything that could go wrong for Vintage did from turnovers to open shots that wouldn’t go in. No matter how you slice it, it was just an all-around bad quarter for the Crushers.
“I wish I knew,” Gongora emphasized. “I don’t know. I’ll have to watch film. It was it was obviously not our best moment.”
On the other hand, it also helped that the second half was where the Crushers were able to start making buckets and getting their scorers going.
Leading the way was Jace Lopez. The senior finished with a game-high of 16 points and 1 rebound. He scored 14 of those points in the second half of the game while making both of his shots from the free-throw line with 4.4 seconds left to seal the victory.
Also having a good game was Miles MacPherson. The senior finished with 14 points and 4 rebounds. He did most of his damage in the second half where he scored 12 points while going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Rounding out the scoring for Vintage was Connor Gongora (6 points, 2 rebounds), Marroquin (5 points, 3 rebounds), Brady Hearn (5 points, 1 rebound), Luke Haeuer (4 points, 6 rebounds, blocked shot), Si Sabbagha (2 points, 1 rebound), and Rory Holland (2 points, 1 rebound).
Vintage will have Wednesday off before visiting Antioch on Thursday at 7 pm.
