Mutch Helps Hornets Rally, But Too Little, Too Late

By Rob Calonge

FRIDAY'S SCORE: Redwood 45, 36.

NOVATO'S RECORD: 8-9 overall, 1-4 in MCAL.

GAME SUMMARY: Points didn't come easy for the Hornets, and by the time they began to gain traction on Redwood, the game was about to end. Novato shot just 26.2 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from the line as it was forced to rely heavily on its defense to stay in the Marin County Athletic League game.

Novato would get out to a 4-3 edge early in the game, but a 6-0 run by the Giants and an inability to take advantage of scoring opportunities left the Hornets trailing 9-6 after the first period.

In the second period, the Hornets' scoring woes continued as they again were only able to score six points to go into the locker room down 20-12 at the half.

Junior scored six of his team-high 12 points in the first half to help keep the Hornets from falling farther behind. When he wasn't scoring, he was leading Novato in rebounds with six -- tying teammate .

The Hornets came out of the halftime break continuing to struggle on offense, and soon fell behind 33-16 toward the end of the third period. Rather than throwing in the towel, the Hornets finished the third quarter with a 7-0 run that was capped off with a buzzer-beating 3-point basket by junior Alex Mutch -- his only points of the game.

In the fourth, a 7-0 run by Novato would cut the deficit to seven, leaving the Giants with a 37-30 lead. But that would be the closest the Hornets would come to re-taking the lead.

REACTION: "That's what I told them after the game. I applauded their effort, and their hard work, and their willingness to compete even when frustration was setting in. We struggled to put the ball in the bucket. We did tonight, and you can do one of two things when that happens: You can get frustrated by it and let it affect your game, and let it affect your effort, and let it affect your defense, or you can just say, 'Hey, we gotta work twice as hard,' and that's just what they did. So I told our guys after the game, I applaud their effort, I thought they worked hard, I thought they battled; they didn't give up. It's frustrating to see young men work hard, and not see the rewards of it. In specific, that's when the ball should be going in the bucket." -- Novato coach .

"We're going to use our practice before the San Marin game really just to focus on us. And we've done that most of the year, where we're not really -- we're not in a position to be trying to game plan too much or to be changing things we do. We just need to fine-tune our stuff, fine-tune our execution, get more rhythm shots so we've got a better chance of them getting down, and take our time and practice to have some rounds of shooting in." -- Nottingham.

NOVATO'S NEXT ACTION: Tuesday at home against San Marin, 7:30 p.m.