MEGAN MEDLAND, LIVE OAK
Prep2Prep Student Contributor

January 27, 2013

Visiting Mt. Pleasant spoiled Live Oak's Homecoming celebration with a 41-38 victory Friday night in Blossom Valley Athletic League West Valley action. The win pushed the Cardinals (7-12, 4-5 BVAL-WV) into a tie for fourth place with the Acorns (9-10, 4-5)

“It was an intense game,” said Live Oak senior Eddie Plascencia. “We went back and forth. What it came down to was foul trouble. We couldn’t be as aggressive as we wanted to. But we still fought back. We attacked the basket hard. We can’t be disappointed in the way we played. Yes we lost, but it was a great game. And you can expect that from us every game.”

With hundreds of people in attendance, the crowd helped fuel the players.

“They were great,” said Plascencia (19 points). “They helped fuel us. They gave us motivation as well as giving ourselves motivation. It was fun having the crowd in the game.”

Even the Cardinals had fun with the crowd.

Senior forward Dantorie Reeves (15 points) said: “I love it. I always love it when there’s a big crowd. It makes you focus more although there’s a lot of chanting going on. But most teams play harder when there’s more chanting.”

Coach Ryan Komagome said: “Live Oak always has a great environment. They have the biggest attendance out of all the teams we play. It’s exciting for our guys to have the energy in the gym.”

Live Oak started off the game with the first basket. But Mt. Pleasant was never far behind. By the end of the first quarter, the Cardinals had taken the lead 13-10. Each quarter ended with a two or three point deficit, as the game was close throughout.

By half, Live Oak crept ahead 19-17.

“I think Live Oak played a hard game. The game was really intense and really fun throughout," Reeves said. "I am just glad my team kept it together, kept their head, and got the win in the end."

By the third quarter, it was clear that neither team was going to give in and the game appeared to remain close until the end.

“I was just happy with how we played. We were really undermanned tonight. But some guys got to step up and play a lot," Live Oak coach Brett Paolucci said. "I thought Tanner Howard played well, Cole Griffin got a few rebounds, Taylor Pullen gave us some good minutes, Ryan Rupp played great. We all played good. I’m happy with our performance, and we never let down. Our defense was great.”

The third quarter ended with the Cardinals leading 33-30.

With the finals minutes counting down, the Cardinals and the Acorns each got 8 points added to the board for the final quarter. With less than 3 minutes left, Plascencia hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 38-38.

“Being tied right there and still having a chance to win was great. I was happy that we had the last shot,” said Paolucci.

But the Cardinals scored the game's final three points to prevail.

“We were able to make one more play at the end,” said Komagome. “So I thought it’s always a tough game at Live Oak. We’re happy to get the win this time. We just have to keep our composure, work on playing solid defense, and work to get the best shot we can offensively.”

“In my eyes the game was really close in the beginning. Number 24 (Plascencia), he had lots of good shots and had a couple of great steals," Reeves said. "But my team still got our steals back and a lot of hustled plays. We hit a lot of clutch threes at the end from our point guard (Previn Wong), and then (Anthony Juni) hit a couple threes, and then (Lance Dayrit) kept his composure and made the free throws at the end of the game.”

Mt. Pleasant visits Yerba Buena on Monday while Live Oak travels to Overfelt on Tuesday.

“We need that win,” said Paolucci. “So we can get our resume better for CCS. That’s what we have to do right now, we have to win games. Next week is going to be really important because we play three games next week, two of them on the road. It’s going to be tough, but if we come out with this effort and focus, I think we will be OK.”