Mendocino College Game

On Wednesday 2/6, most of the JV team and several of the Varsity team members were in the stands to watch a team of six Mendocino College Eagles win a very impressive and dramatic over time game against Yuba College. Mendocino actually played the last couple of minutes with only 4 players, the other two on the team having fouled out.In the first half, Mendo played tough defense and shot well from the floor. Mendo’s defense forced a lot of poor shots by Yuba. Mendocino really passed the ball well, and used a lot of basket cuts against both zone and man defenses to make the defense move. Excellent passing led to many wide open shots, and they made more than they missed. Mendo’s lead grew to as much as 17 points in the 1st half.

Yuba made a brief run early in the second half, cutting the lead to less than 10 points (can’t remember exactly). Mendo quickly built the lead back to 17 again, but after that, the game got closer and closer. Finally, with around 4-5 seconds left in the game, Coach Stilega called a time out; the Eagles were down by 3 points. They had the ball in their own front court- a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime. Probably everyone in the building knew that Coach Stilega was going to send them back out with a play to get sophomore guard, and former WHS star Katie Stiles a shot. Katie drained a heavily contested 3 pointer from the corner to send the game into over time.

In over time, Mendo managed to take control of the game again with no subs, because one player had already fouled out. I thought that was very impressive and showed a lot of heart and toughness, as well as excellent conditioning. Mendo built a slight lead and hung on to pull off the huge league game victory.

While the game was exciting, the highlight of the evening for me came when one of our players asked out loud about Katie Stiles, “How come Katie doesn’t just go to High School in Willits? After a moment of puzzled quietness, we all realized that she thought we were watching a High School game! I love these kids!