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The Gunn girls basketball team beat San Mateo Tuesday, 50-37, to improve to 3-0 on the season.
What a difference, what a breath of fresh air after going a combined 5-70 over the last four seasons.
It’s a young team with four freshmen and four sophomores. Point guard Mollie Kuelker is the lone senior on the team, the player with the most vivid memories of the nightmarish ordeal of the previous seasons. She scored 14 points in the win over San Mateo.
“It feels really good, we’re so happy,” she said. “We’re very proud of ourselves and we hope to keep it up.”
So what’s different?
“We have people who really mesh well together,” Kuelker said. “We bond off the court. Our new coach has made us come together.”
DJ Kobza has taken over as head coach and was quick to credit his senior point guard.
“She knows how to be a floor manager,” Kobza said. “It’s been amazing for me as the new coach. She’s done a great job of rallying the girls to show me support.”
Freshman Vallory Kuelker, Mollie’s younger sister, scored 22 points Tuesday along with nine rebounds, and has scored 20 or more in all three games.
“I was lucky to inherit a lot of new talent coming in,” Kobza said. “They have become a tight-knit group right away. I have tried to be a calming, positive presence, just focusing on basketball.”
Mollie Kuelker hit a 3-pointer to initiate the scoring, and then sister Vallory took over, making three 3-pointers and a pair of free throws as Gunn led 14-2 after one quarter with the Kuelker sisters accounting for all 14 points.
The score was 29-12 at halftime and 43-21 after three quarters before San Mateo (1-4) made it a little closer in the fourth quarter.
Gunn is in action next on Thursday in a home game against Prospect.
In another game, St. Francis topped host Leland 55-32. The Lancers (4-0) return to Leland on Saturday to play Hillsdale at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Leland Shootout.
Palo Alto beat Aragon 74-63 in its home opener.
Boys basketball
Menlo dropped a 59-52 decision to Stuart Hall of San Francisco in the opening round of the Burlingame Lions Tournament on Tuesday.
Senior Daniel Solomon finished with a team-high 22 points while junior Lucas Vogel added 16.
Menlo (1-1) took a narrow lead early and the game was tied 21-21 at the half. Stuart Hall extended the lead to 12 points before Menlo went on a late blitz.
Solomon sank a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three with less than a minute left, but Stuart Hall (6-1) held on for the win.
Menlo will play Aragon, which lost 64-58 to Burlingame.
In another game, Menlo-Atherton beat visiting Sacred Heart Cathedral 58-44.
