LOS GATOS — After building a 12-point lead at halftime, Los Gatos held off a Milpitas charge down the stretch to emerge with a 56-55 victory Tuesday in a battle for first place in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division.
Los Gatos (13-3 overall) now sits on top of the standings by itself at 4-0. Milpitas (12-4, 3-1), which has now had three out of its four De Anza outings decided by one point, is tied with Palo Alto for second place, one game back.
“That was fun, exciting, that’s what league games are about,” Los Gatos coach Nick Ward said. “You get to this time of year and there’s a different atmosphere. For the kids it’s more than just about themselves. They’re representing their team, their school and their community.”
The Wildcats made 13 of 25 field-goal attempts in the first half and led 30-18 at the break. Milpitas cut its deficit to 42-37 after three quarters, but didn’t get within one score until Dylan Nguyen scored on a drive in the final minute to make it 54-51.
The Trojans got the ball back still down three and called timeout with 17.7 seconds left. Los Gatos had a foul to give and took it with 8.1 left, just before Jacob Wrencher put up an off-balance 3-pointer that went in after the whistle blew. Los Gatos then committed another intentional foul, putting Isaac Sisay on the line with 5.4 seconds to go.
Sisay made the first and missed the second on purpose, but Nolan Koch secured the rebound for Los Gatos and made two free throws to put his team up four. Then when Nguyen’s heave from mid-court banked in at the buzzer it provided the final one-point margin.
“We could’ve just given up when we got down early, but we battled back to win the third and win the fourth and being a possession or two away,” Milpitas coach Champ Wrencher said “We played to win and we were right there. (Los Gatos) managed the game the right way and put us in a situation where we were squeezed out by the clock.”
Milpitas simply had no answer for Koch down low. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior, who went into the game averaging 15.9 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, hardly missed a shot all game. He scored 26 points on 10 field goals in 12 attempts and 6-of-6 shooting on the foul line.
“He’s a tough kid.” Ward said. “Three years he’s been up, even played a little his freshman year. He’s spent so much time in the weight room and on the court. He just keeps getting better. He’s so tough to guard.”
Scotty Brennan scored 15 points on the day it was announced his father, former San Jose State football coach Brent Brennan, had been named the new coach at Arizona.
“I talked to him before the game,” Ward said. “I told him, `Don’t worry about that, whatever happens happens. You’re playing, you’re here, just focus on the now.”’
Anthony Martin added 10 points for Los Gatos and was praised by Ward for “always being around the ball on defense.”
Jacob Wrencher, a 6-6 junior and the son of the Milpitas coach, scored 21 points. Nguyen, the team’s point guard, scored 13.
Champ Wrencher, now in his 17th year at Milpitas after taking over for Steve Cain in 2007, is reaping the benefits of his youth development programs this season.
“We’ve got a couple things going on in Milpitas, youth recreation basketball and a couple AAU clubs,” he said. “Grassroots stuff for kids living in Milpitas, trying to get kids excited about playing basketball. This group we have here, they’ve all played with each other since third and fourth grade.”
