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LOS ALTOS — Palo Alto never trailed Friday night on the road, but it still had to sweat it out in a boys basketball battle for first place in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Los Altos, which suffered its second loss of the season, trailed by 17 points in the fourth quarter before deploying a full-court press to get within single digits with under two minutes left.
For Paly, it didn’t help that point guard Conner Lusk did not play. The senior suffered an elbow injury a week ago at Homestead on a tough fall and is out indefinitely.
But immediately after a shot-clock violation by the Vikings, leave it to De Anza MVP candidate Matthew Marzano to deliver the knockout blow with a steal and ensuing layup that helped secure a 64-52 victory.
“I threw like two, three turnovers before that, so I knew that I had to steal one back for us,” said Marzano, who accounted for a team-high 16 points.
“That’s the one thing he does, he makes plays on both sides of the court,” Paly coach Jeff LaMere said. “That’s what makes him special, is he’s got a really high basketball IQ.”
Los Altos (16-2, 5-1 SCVAL De Anza) lost one of its key players to an injury Jan. 10 at Milpitas as junior Dom D’Augusta bruised bones on his elbow and wrist after going up for a dunk.
“We have to do our best to persevere through that, but it definitely hurt us,” said Los Altos junior Brock Susko, who finished with a game-high 20 points.
Paly (14-4, 6-0) drained five 3-pointers in the first half, including a trio by junior Aidan Rausch — all of his 13 points coming before halftime — plus an NBA-range dagger from Marzano with 4:37 left in the second quarter for a 28-16 lead.
At the half, the host Eagles trailed 35-26.
“I thought Palo Alto came out fantastic,” Los Altos coach Trevor Naas said. “I thought they were a little bit tougher than us on both ends of the floor tonight and knocked down some shots right out of the gate. And we dug ourselves a little bit too big a hole to come back from.”
A rash of turnovers along with 10-of-22 shooting from the charity stripe also came back to haunt Los Altos.
“Against a team like that you can’t have empty possessions, you can’t throw it away,” Naas said. “And they made us pay.”
Four players finished in double digits for the Vikings, including guard Jamir Shepard — a Fresno State football commit as a 6-foot-2 wide receiver. His hustle contributed 15 points, while fellow senior Ryan Purpur added 14.
This is hardly the same team that lost 62-23 at Bellarmine in the second game of the season, all the way back on Dec. 13.
“We’ve certainly taken our lumps this year, but the one thing that they’ve shown is they’ve learned from it,” LaMere said. “I still think back to the Bellarmine game and they completely hammered us. One thing we talked about is we are a team that is becoming, so we feel like we have a high ceiling. But it starts with effort, and if we can get that effort all the time we’ll be in ballgames.”
But until Lusk returns to the backcourt, Paly must readjust on the fly.
“Conner is one of our key guys,” Marzano said. “He keeps us calm in there, so without him we’re kind of learning still to finish the game.”
Friday night, the effort proved enough to hold off Los Altos.
“I’m definitely proud of our guys for the fight to come back,” Naas said. “The full-court pressure bothered them a little bit, but Marzano stepped up and made a big play.”
The rematch is scheduled for Feb. 14 at Paly in the penultimate regular-season game for both teams
“It’s motivation,” Susko said. “It’s a huge game for us, especially after they come to our home court and beat us. We’ll definitely be motivated at practice tomorrow.”
He added: “These are the games that help us get better in the future.”