The Bellarmine Bells (7-0) eked out a 54-52 win over the Soquel Knights (5-2) in the final minutes of the game Saturday night. Though the Bells led almost the entire game, the score was close throughout, and Soquel even managed to pull ahead, 47-45, with four minutes to go until Bellarmine guard Isaac Gayles hit a huge three-pointer to put the Bells ahead for good. Gayles and guard Grant "Boo" Vermeer each scored 17 points.
“We’ve played better in every phase of the game and we were very fortunate to come away with a victory against a really good Soquel team,” said Bellarmine coach Patrick Schneider. “There are three things that we emphasize as the key to winning close games. We need to get rebounds, we need to take care of the ball and we need to make free throws. In the last couple minutes, we rebounded well and we took care of the ball. We were lucky to survive being very poor from the line in the last minute.”
With 1:19 left, the Bells were up 53-52 when Soquel took possession. The Knights dished the ball inside but Vermeer stole it and was quickly fouled. He made a free throw to put Bell up 54-52. With 35 seconds left, Soquel took a long three that went wide right. Vermeer scooped up the rebound and was fouled again. But Vermeer missed the first of the one-and-one opportunity and Soquel had another chance.
After Soquel missed a field goal attempt, Bell forward Jackson Gion got the rebound and threw it to point guard Danny Schatzman. Schatzman was fouled but missed a free throw. With just over 10 seconds left, Soquel had one more chance to score. Soquel point guard Sam Walters fired a three from several feet beyond the arc, which bounced off the rim and sealed the victory for the Bells.
“Towards the end, we needed to make more free throws. They had a chance to win at the end with a three because we missed two front-ends of the one-and-one, so that’s four possible points we missed. We did a great job playing defense at the end in the half-court, but we need to make our free throws,” said Vermeer. “Soquel played well. They’re great competitors. Their players are great. However, teams in our league beat them by a lot more and we should have beaten them by a lot more.”
Though they struggled with rebounds, Soquel managed to keep pace with the Bells because they made eight 3-pointers. Three of those came from guard Tucker Widget. Forward Scott Akrop also had a solid night, finishing with 13 points.
“Scotty Akrop played good. He hit some threes, he was active on the boards, took a couple charges so that was good. That was probably the highlight of our night,” said Soquel coach Stu Walters.
Coach Walters thinks his team played well but still sees room for improvement.
“I think we had too many unforced turnovers. We’re usually pretty good with the ball. We just turned the ball over way too many times tonight and that means we don’t get shots and you saw how close the game was right there at the end. That’s uncharacteristic of us, but their defense was good.”
For the Bells, Isaac Gayles had a tremendous game, finishing with 17 points while making 7-of-8 field goal attempts.
Said Schneider: “Isaac played extremely well. He hit a huge three for us in the last few minutes of the game. He rebounded very well and did a really stand-up job. He’s one of the few guys who did a stand-up job defensively tonight. Isaac played a great game.”
Now both teams look ahead, in Bellarmine's case to finals week.
“Finals week is a tough week to practice because the guys are physically a little tired and not as well-rested as usual," Schneider said. "Their minds are a little distracted so we just want quick, short, intense practices and then get the guys home. Get them studying, resting, and then as the week goes on, we’ll start to build up gradually to be ready to take Burlingame on in the first round of our DJ tournament.”
Vermeer seems ready to battle this week in practice. “We didn’t show up to play today, and that’s a lesson we shouldn’t have had to learn with eight seniors on our team, but we did learn it and luckily we learned it with a victory. But we’ll come back on Monday and during practice (to) just keep getting better. We need to come to play every game.”
The Bells host their eighth annual DJ Frandsen Memorial Tournament at home beginning Friday, December 21, opening with a game against Burlingame. The Knights don’t have another game until Wednesday, January 2 when they play Aptos at home.
