The final buzzer sounded, and with it, the hopes of an end-of-game comeback for the Redwood Giants were taken away.
The boys’ varsity basketball team lost to the Marin Catholic Wildcats 67-61 in a disparaging effort on Tuesday, Jan 24.
The Giants started slow, spotting the Wildcats an eight point lead at the end of the first as Marin Catholic senior, Joey Calcaterra started the game at a torrid pace, leading his team towards scoring 23 points on the Giants in the first quarter.
Redwood’s senior guard Chris Kress was disappointed with the game.
“What do you want me to say? I sucked,” Kress said. “[I feel] pretty shitty to be honest. Just having someone come at you for the entire game and us really not doing much to stop him. From the first quarter on, we had to fight ourselves out of a hole.”
Kress said that they tried to be more physical with Calcaterra, who ended the game with a game-high 31 points.
“[Calcaterra] wants to win, he wants to destroy you. So you have to run a lot of double [teams] at him and bump him off the screen.” Kress said. “You have to make [Marin Catholic] beat you without him.
The second quarter was more tightly contested as Redwood used a fast start to win the quarter 12-11 and cut the lead by one. Marin Catholic went into the half winning, 34-26.
This was a rivalry game and both teams said they needed to be mentally tough to have a chance at winning this game.
Marin Catholic head coach Mike Saia acknowledged the rivalry but said that his team didn’t prepare any different due to it.
“[The matchup] is a big rivalry game. I prepare for Redwood because they are a good team. The kids will figure out the rivalry part out. The fact that Redwood is a good team makes it that much more of a big game.” Saia said. “There is definitely more emotion. Redwood is three miles away. This kind of rivalry game is what high school basketball is all about.”
Saia said that his team needed to be adults in this high stakes environment.
“I prepare [the players] in practice, but when it comes to the game they need to figure it out. I’m really proud of them.”
Redwood head coach Steve Compagno said that after Marin Catholic’s hot start in the first quarter they tried to change their defense and use more double teams.
“We wanted to run at them and make them give the ball up. We couldn’t stop them,” Compagno said.
The third quarter was much like the second as the Giants used a hot start and a strong defensive effort to cut the lead by one again after outscoring the Wildcats 16-15.
Compagno said that they did not prepare any differently even though Calcaterra, one of the best players in the league, was suiting up against them.
“It’s still a five-on-five game. He is really good and the object is to understand that he is going to do what he does, but you have to take it away from the other guys. We didn’t do that,” Campagno said.
The fourth quarter was the tightest of the four, with Redwood pulling within one point multiple times. In the end, Marin Catholic’s offense was too much for the Giant’s defense and they ended up pulling away as the game ended.
Redwood next plays on Friday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 pm against the Justin Siena Braves —a Leadership sponsored game night.
