A Marriage Ends Up in Court--Basketball : High schools: Jim Mottershaw’s El Capitan team defeats Julie Mottershaw’s Mt. Miguel squad, 44-38.

You were expecting maybe a pregame kiss?

Not on your life.

Jim and Julie Mottershaw might be husband and wife every other day this year, but on Tuesday they were foes, facing each other as the girls’ basketball coaches at El Capitan and Mt. Miguel for the first time.

And coach they did.

No hugging, no kissing, but Jim Mottershaw did manage to squeeze a 44-38 victory out of his El Capitan team, coming back from as many as five points down in the fourth quarter to win what is believed to be the first coaching showdown between spouses in Section history.

El Capitan, which was 1-19 last year, improved to 7-5. Host Mt. Miguel played its finest game of the season but nonetheless lost its 12th in row after winning its opener on Dec. 5. The Matadors, which won four games last year, had been outscored this season by an average of 43.8-23.8.

For those expecting to watch this scenario played out on Divorce Court someday, that wasn’t the case at all.

The game was enticing, surprisingly close, and both coaches insist they paid little or no attention to the other.

“I really didn’t even notice that it was you over there,” Julie told Jim after the game. “I was just worried about my team.”

“You know, it’s funny,” Jim said, “but when the game starts, we both coach the heck out of our teams.

“No winks. No blowing of kisses. We come to coach. That’s our job. We’ll discuss it tonight probably.”

Mt. Miguel took advantage of eight points by guard Ki Jones (she finished with 16) in the third quarter to turn a 20-17 halftime deficit into a 34-29 lead early in the fourth quarter.

El Capitan tied it, 34-34, on a three-pointer by Stacie Terry (11 points) with 6:26 left, but the game wasn’t decided until Melanie Schard (13 points) made a layup with 28 seconds left to put the Vaqueros up by five. Amy Moody scored 14 points.

“The only difference I noticed in this game, was that I was finally able to coach at the end of a game,” Julie said. “This was definitely our best effort this year. I felt we really improved tonight.”