Mills pulled away in the second half to capture a 51-39 defensive struggle at Carlmont in a game in which the Vikings never trailed.
With 6:37 left in the fourth quarter, Mills forward Conor Hidalgo hit a jumper to beat the shot clock buzzer after 35 seconds of an aggressive offensive effort, increasing the Mille lead to 40-29. Hidalgo’s shot was just one of seven shots made by Mills (13-6, 6-1 PAL-South) with five seconds or less on the shot clock.
“Nothing is more frustrating to a team than when you play great defense and force the other team to take a tough last-second shot, only for it to go in,” said Carlmont coach David Low.
As the Scots (15-4, 4-3) prepared to take the court in the fourth quarter, they trailed 39-28, and senior forward Connor Moore told his team, “defense is going to win this game, boys.” He couldn’t have been more accurate.
Inspired by Moore’s words, Carlmont fought hard defensively in the fourth quarter. The Scots attempted to make a late comeback run, but the last-second clutch shooting by Mills put the comeback out of reach.
“Even though it appeared that we were playing good defense, they were still scoring on us,” said Low, “and instead of chipping away at that lead, it started to increase on us. Mentally, it’s tough for players to deal with that.”
Although Mills never trailed in this contest, there was a point early in the third quarter where Carlmont came within three points of the Vikings, which was ignited by good execution in the second quarter.
By the end of the first quarter, Mills rested comfortably at a 17-7 lead, but almost let it slip away in the second quarter. Carlmont tightened up the score going into halftime, but still trailed, 25-20.
“We relaxed a little bit on both defense and offense [in the second quarter] and got away from the hard work that got us that early 10-point lead," Mills coach Rick Hansen said. "It was frustrating to see that disappear and become a close game at halftime."
Late in the third quarter, however, the Vikings found their groove offensively.
“[In the second half] everyone played good defense and we got out in transition,” said Joseph Worku, who led the Vikings with 18 points and had an outstanding all-around performance on both ends of the court.
With 6:10 left in the fourth quarter, Marquis Adkins tossed the ball up to Worku off the half-court in-bound and Worku made an electrifying alley-oop layup.
“In the second half we were persistent. We kept working to get good shots and a number of guys hit good shots,” said Hansen.
Other top performers for the Vikings included Jeremy Gibbs (9 points) and Matt Wong (8), who left the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. Michael Costello led the Scots with 10 points.
The victory allowed Mills to remain in second place in the PAL-South, within striking distance of first place Burlingame (12-7, 7-0). The Vikings play at Sequoia on Wednesday night at 6pm, and then finish the three-game week when they host Aragon at 7:45pm on Friday.
Carlmont has now dropped three of its last four games. Low said of his slumping Scots: “They’re beat up a little bit at this time, but there’s a light there at the end of the tunnel. Every game is an important game to try to get that playoff spot.”
Carlmont travels to Aragon Wednesday night to play at 6pm, the takes on Woodside for senior night at home Friday at 7:45pm.
