BOYS BASKETBALL: Cupertino Tops Homestead in Regular Season Finale

Cupertino 46, Homestead 45

The Stars: Each sides top two scorers finished in double figures during the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division delight Friday night. The nail biter went down to the final seconds as Cupertino guard Terry Chu received the ball in his hands with the game all even at 42. Chu blew past his man and drew a two-shot foul. Chu knocked down both free throws. After a Mustangs miss, junior forward Gokul Natesan followed with another clutch pair of makes at the free throw stripe to extend the lead to four points late.

Chu finished the game with a team-high 17 points and Natesan added 15 points of his own. Homestead senior Momir Gataric led all scorers with 18 points, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer to pull his team one point shy of forcing overtime.

The Turning Point: Cupertino (17-7, 9-3 De Anza) led by 13 points at the half and took a 38-24 advantage into the fourth quarter of play before the home team embarked on a furious fourth quarter rally. Out of whack offensively early after an emotional senior night presentation, Homestead only scored 13 points in the first half of play.

The senior-heavy team—Homestead (15-9, 8-4 De Anza) has nine seniors on the 2010-11 roster—began its trek back midway through the fourth quarter. Senior Momir Gataric drilled a deep 3-pointer in ignite his team and the packed stands, making the score 40-33 with 4:25 left in the ball game. Gataric followed up a teammates miss for an alert put back, then watched smooth shooting Andrej Ivanovic connect on a triple from the top of the arc to tie things up at 42.

The Quotes: "Its feels great to be able to get a win here, especially on their senior night." —Cupertino senior guard Terry Chu after the hard fought league victory. “I knew he couldn’t guard me. I just wanted to go to my dribble move and drive the ball to the hoop. I got fouled and was able to make my free throws.”

Homestead head coach Shawn Hook was pleased with the comeback, but disappointed that his team couldn’t complete the fourth quarter rally with a W. The two teams have now met three times this year. All three meetings have been decided by one point.

“I guess it was our turn to lose by one,” Hook said with a grin. “I think we were a little emotional early. We just calmed down and we able to start playing better basketball.”

What's Next? Cupertino will compete in the Division II draw of the Central Coast Section boys basketball playoffs, while Homestead will battle it out in the Division I bracket. The seedings and schedule will be announced Sunday night. Playoff action begins early next week.

 Bottom Line: With a second place finish in the De Anza division on the line, Cupertino came through and helped itself out in the standings and with its upcoming CCS playoff seeding. Both teams will get a bye in round one, but Homestead will most likely slip to a No. 6 seed after the narrow defeat. Both squads survived a tough league and will be more than adequately prepared for the rigors of playoff basketball.

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 Scoring

 Cupertino

Natesan-15

Chu-17

Huynh-6

Licardie-2

Prendergast-2

Siano-4

 Homestead

Gataric-18

Frazier Jr.-2

Ivanovic-13

LaPointe-6

Rodrigo-2

Porat-2

Metoyer-2