SANTA CLARA — After a cold-shooting first half, Milpitas got it going in a big way in the second half.
The Trojans pulled away from Los Gatos over the final 16 minutes for a 49-36 victory in the Central Coast Section Division I championship game Saturday at Santa Clara High.
It was the second boys basketball CCS championship for the school, and the first since 1997.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Milpitas coach Champ Wrencher said. “I came close a couple times, but there were a lot of years I would be in the bleachers, watching. I remember one year after I first moved out here I saw Andrew Hill and Bellarmine play.
“I had just started coaching JV at Milpitas and I thought, wow, it would be great to play in one of these. But as time went on I thought I’d probably never have a chance. But these guys came along and rejuvenated all those possibilities.”
Los Gatos, which had already lost twice to Milpitas this season, went into the game wanting to keep Milpitas out of transition. The first half couldn’t have gone better from that standpoint. Milpitas (26-1) missed its first eight shots and the score was 18-18 at the break.
The second half was a whole different story. Milpitas standout Pranavram Krishnan, after scoring only two points in the first half, broke loose for 22 in the second half.
“My shot wasn’t falling and I couldn’t get to where I wanted to go, but I knew for how much I practiced that they were going to start falling eventually,” Krishnan said.
Included in his second-half scoring barrage were four emphatic slam dunks, shots that brought the rabid Milpitas rooting section, which showed up in big numbers for the big game, into ecstatic celebration. His favorite of the dunks, and also the crowd’s favorite, came when he missed a 3-pointer from the corner, followed the shot, elevated to grab the rebound and in the same motion slammed it down.
“I think that was definitely a game changer,” Krishnan said.
“That was one of those defining plays that created momentum and carried us to the end of the game,” Wrencher said.
Dylan Nguyen, the other half of the team’s 1-2 scoring punch, scored 12 of his team’s 18 in the first half and added eight more in the second half as he and Krishnan accounted for 30 of Milpitas’ 31 second-half points.
“He’s the best guard in CCS,” Wrencher said. “I don’t have to tell him to calm down or don’t get too excited. He’s a good example of keeping a poker face out there and being a silent assassin.”
The all-freshmen backcourt of Milos Grabovac (10 points) and Oliver Evans (8) were the top scorers for Los Gatos (21-6).
“We held them to 18 points in the first half which was probably the fewest they’d scored in a half all year,” Los Gatos coach Nick Ward said. “But I knew it was only a matter of time until they’d start hitting some tough shots. Once they hit their groove in the second half they were really really good. We had to be near perfect and we just weren’t there tonight.”
