BOYS BASKETBALL: Milpitas Holds Off Wilcox

The Score: Milpitas 52, Wilcox 47.

The Star: Senior T.J. Hartley came off the bench to score 20 points for the Trojans. The point guard’s speedy play made it difficult for the Chargers to guard him.

The Turning Point: After a slow start in the first quarter, the Trojans came alive in the second frame by scoring 14 points and holding their opponent to only nine points.

The Quote: “T.J. is our MVP,” said Milpitas coach Champ Wrencher. “He takes a lot of pressure off of everybody else. The way he covers the floor in all those areas, it keeps the game simple for everybody else.”

What's Next? The Trojans head to Sunnyvale to face Fremont on Friday.

Bottom Line: Milpitas has won two straight and continues to stay on pace with undefeated Mountain View, who will play the Trojans on Feb. 11.

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The Milpitas boys basketball team's defense shined once again at home in the Trojans' 52-47 victory over Wilcox High Tuesday night.

The Trojans held off a late rally by the Chargers in the fourth quarter to earn their second victory in a row and eighth win of the season. Milpitas is now 8-3 overall and 5-1 in the SCVAL El Camino division.

Senior T.J. Hartley led the Trojans with 20 points and sparked the team with his speedy and hard-nose play.

“T.J. is our MVP,” said Milpitas coach Champ Wrencher. “He gets to the basket and causes problems for teams trying to press us. They don’t expect someone like that to be able to dribble through it. He takes a lot of pressure off of everybody else. The way he covers the floor in all those areas, it keeps the game simple for everybody else.”

Milpitas came out slow in the first quarter, and Wilcox took advantage by going on a 6-0 run. Junior Derek Fox got the Trojans on the board with 5:13 left in the opening quarter after making two free-throw attempts.

The Trojans then went on a run of their own, scoring four points in the last minute to cut down the lead to 15-10 heading into the second quarter.

“We started slow,” said junior Buddy Ames. “We built up some momentum and we finally starting getting the ball in the basket. [Coach] told us to just keep pushing the ball inside and keep attacking to get to the line.”

Ames and his squad carried over the momentum from the final minutes of the first quarter into the second and scored six straight points. The Trojans’ defense also came alive and held the Chargers to five points through the first four minutes of play.

After both teams failed to hit a shot in the remaining seconds of the half to take the lead, the Trojans and Chargers ended the half even, at 24-24.

Hartley said the Trojans could have taken the lead into the third quarter, but he and his teammates had mistakes on offense that kept Wilcox in the game.

“We could have definitely been up by more on them if we would have knocked down our free throws,” Hartley said after the game. “If we just executed our offense the way we do in practice, we would have been up. It was kind of a sloppy half, but we stayed with them.”

Fox led the Trojans with nine points in the first half, while Hartley and fellow senior Brian Trinh contributed six and five points respectively.

Wrencher said it was his seniors who came off the bench and spark the team’s comeback and strong play down the stretch in the first half.

“They’re really active on defense,” Wrencher said. “When they come off the bench, they inject energy. They create turnovers, they create fast breaks, and when they penetrate, they create offense rebounding lanes for our big players.”

The third quarter belonged to the Trojans, who did just about everything right on both sides of the court. Wilcox couldn’t find an answer for the swarming Trojans’ defense and got into to foul trouble.

Milpitas took a 42-36 lead into the fourth quarter in front of their home crowd. But sloppy play by the Trojans and unlucky calls allowed the Chargers to cut the lead down four points with under a minute left in the game.

The Trojans were able to hold off Wilcox, and Hartley sealed the game with an easy layup with 12 seconds left on the clock.

“If we get 50 points, we’re good,” Wrencher said. “We’re solid, because I think we can hold a lot of teams to 35. We were on pace to do that tonight. We’ve been doing that most of the season in our wins. So I am confident that if we get to 50 points we’ll be OK and win games with our defense.”

Milpitas heads to Sunnyvale next to take on Fremont High School on Friday.

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STATS

Milpitas Leading Scorers

 Hartley – 20

Fox – 9

Rodriguez - 9