by Alex Valdes
Not only did it bring down the house, but Curtis Haggins' behind-the-back, thread-the-needle pass to teammate Terence Brown was an illustration of the kind of skills Menlo-Atherton High's boys basketball team has displayed thus far. Haggins' dish resulted in a Brown layup, one of many brilliant M-A executions in an 81-65 nonleague victory over visiting Gunn on Wednesday night. The partisan M-A crowd roared its appreciation for Haggins' fanciwork, as well.
"He has a good command of the offense," M-A coach Jeff Klenow said of Haggins, who finished with 20 points (nine coming on three three-point goals) and six assists. He made nine of 13 shots he attempted.
In fact, the entire M-A team shot well, over 60 percent, and canned nine three-point goals. John Tribuiano scored 16 points and made seven of 11 shots; Brown also finished with 16 points (four for four from the free-throw line); and Dulani Spencer came off the bench to score nine points.
In addition, Brown pulled down eight rebounds, Andre Harris had six and Tribuiano dished out four assists.
But despite the performance, Klenow was disappointed with the defense.
"I don't think the defensive intensity was there," he said. "We've been working real hard on that. I think we can play a lot better at the other end of the court. We can execute better, but I guess every coach says that."
The M-A defense looked impressive in the first quarter, when the Bears turned several steals into points. Twice, Haggins made steals and then scored layups, and Tribuiano also had one steal/layup combination.
That was the kind of pressure M-A applied to Gunn, and later the Bears cranked it up from the outside. In the second quarter, Tribuiano nailed two three-pointers--both coming after he had made steals--and Haggins and Ben Williams also hit from beyond the stripe.
The bombs enabled M-A to reel off a 24-7 run, turning a 23-20 lead early in the second quarter to a 47-27 advantage at halftime.
Tribuiano displayed a bevy of skills throughout the contest. Besides hitting a pair of treys, he scored with a baseline drive, a turnaround jumper and a putback off a weakside rebound.
Haggins was a crowd-pleaser all night. In the first quarter, he wowed the Bear fans with a quick bounce pass through defenders to Tribuiano for a layup. He made three layups off steals, hit a trio of three-pointers and even attempted to dunk on a breakaway. That bit of showmanship failed--he hit the ball of the front rim, but it trickled in anyway.
And Brown appears to be the inside presence M-A will need in the physical PAL. In the first quarter, he blocked two shots, made a difficult baseline shot with a couple of defenders on him and ignited a fastbreak with a nice outlet pass off a defensive rebound.
Later, Brown scored on a runner, a baseline drive and a mid-air follow shot.
Gunn also played very well at times, especially in the first quarter, when it rebounded from a 17-6 deficit to climb to within 23-20 by the second quarter. Kyle Ryan (14 points) keyed the rally by scoring seven points in the first quarter.
Zack Waldorph also scored 14 points, including 10 straight in a span bridging the third and fourth quarters. He and Ryan provided solid rebounding efforts, and Shaun McCalister made several excellent passes.
In another nonleague game Wednesday, Menlo School fell to host Pioneer, 54-37. John Maletis led Menlo (4-3) with 20 points, nailing a pair of three-pointers.
On Tuesday, Haggins scored 21 points and Brown had 17 to lead M-A to a 64-55 victory over visiting Skyline of Oakland. Brown scored 10 of his points in the first quarter, and Haggins had nine, as M-A burst to a 19-4 edge.
Haggins finished with six assists and M-A made 25 of 41 field-goal attempts. Elsewhere, Mid-Peninsula sorely missed scoring leader Quentin True as the Dragons fell to Crystal Springs, 76-39.
On Monday, Menlo School withstood a late charge by Terra Nova to win a nonleague contest, 54-51. Scoring in double figures for the Knights were Maletis (17), Ben Elder (14) and Caley Roberts (12). Their play enabled Menlo to break away from a 22-22 tie at halftime and outscore Terra Nova, 15-10, in the third quarter.
Palo Alto and Gunn are both entered in the Fremont-Sunnyvale tournament. If Palo Alto and Gunn both won in the first round on Thursday, the two teams will meet in the second round at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. The losing teams from the Gunn and Paly games will play Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The tournament continues Monday and Tuesday with games starting at 10 a.m. The final games each night are at 8:30 p.m.
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