Despite playing a near-flawless first quarter, the San Benito
Haybalers were unable to maintain their strong defensive
performance on Thursday night, or their decent lead, as they lost
to a high-powered Salinas Cowboys squad that shot 54 percent from
the field en route to a 65-50 victory at Hollister’s Mattson
Gym.
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HOLLISTER
The San Benito Haybalers may have found the solution to defeating top teams in the Tri-County Athletic League, like Palma and Salinas. They just haven’t been able to maintain it for four quarters.
One week after it led host Palma 34-27 at halftime, only to eventually fall by a 65-48 margin, San Benito played a near-flawless first quarter against Salinas on Wednesday night at Hollister’s Mattson Gym. But the Balers were unable to maintain their strong defensive performance in the first half, or their 25-20 halftime lead, as they lost to a high-powered Salinas squad that shot 54 percent from the field by a 65-50 score.
Salinas’ 6-foot-8 center Frank Rogers dropped a game-high 18 points behind 8 of 11 shooting, 14 of which came in the second half, while teammates Michael Amiya and Mitchell Johnson, who were both held scoreless in the first half, combined for 27 points in the third and fourth quarters.
Salinas, in fact, outscored San Benito 27-12 in the decisive third quarter.
“We have a small margin of error to beat a good team like that,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said of the loss, which drops the Balers to 3-2 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 8-9 overall.
San Benito showed signs in the first quarter of a team intent on avenging its previous loss to the Cowboys, who managed to defeat the Balers in overtime by a 60-55 margin at the Condor Christmas Classic last month, a game in which the Balers battled back in the second half to knot the game at 51-all at the end of regulation.
On Wednesday, San Benito forced nine Salinas turnovers in the first quarter and scored 12 of its 16 first-quarter points off of those extra possessions to take a 16-7 lead after just eight minutes of play.
Intercepting several passes at the top of the key, while also clogging the passing lanes in the paint to Rogers, the Balers got in transition in the first quarter and closed out the opening stanza on an 8-0 run behind a pair of driving lay-ups from Eric Elayda.
Elayda scored a team-high 15 points off the bench for the Balers, while teammate Cooper Sepulveda had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.
“We were gonna have to play a near-perfect game defensively to have a chance,” Carpenter said. “That was the first quarter.”
Any momentum gained in the first eight minutes by the Balers appeared to decrease as the game progressed. Constantly changing their defensive looks — in the middle quarters, especially — from man to zone to half-court trap to full-court press, the Cowboys began to chip away at the Balers’ lead in the second stanza.
Although San Benito pushed the lead to 11 off a Jordan Belton jumper to open the second quarter — the Balers’ biggest lead of the game — Salinas forced five turnovers in the period and cut the deficit to three points over the next three minutes.
A 7-0 run by the Cowboys to start the third quarter further dissipated San Benito’s first-quarter momentum, and completely erased its lead for good.
“They gave us some problems with switching up defenses,” said Carpenter, whose team trailed by 10 entering the final period. “We didn’t always attack the way we probably could have.”
Carpenter later added, “It’s tough to score against a big team with a big defender in the middle of the floor.”
That would be Rogers, who got into foul trouble the last time San Benito and Salinas met, and whose play was limited as a result. He eventually fouled out in that game at the Condor Christmas Classic, but committed just one foul on Wednesday.
His presence was especially felt on the offensive glass, where he scored the majority of his points on put-back jumpers. Even then, the Cowboys were extremely efficient from the field, shooting 54 percent in the game, 62 percent in the second half.
“If we’re getting so few defensive rebounds, that means they’re getting a lot of offensive rebounds,” Carpenter said. The Balers had just 10 defensive rebounds Wednesday, and eight offensive.
Last month in Castroville, though, San Benito pulled down 15 offensive boards against Salinas.
Not a one-dimensional team, however, the Cowboys also made six 3-pointers, a pair each from Amiya, Johnson and Arthur Caldwell, another post presence who scored 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting.
As the game developed, part of the problem for the Balers was in the turnover department, which not only took them out of their game offensively, but also out of their transition game that proved to be so fruitful in the first quarter.
After not committing a single turnover in the first quarter, San Benito committed 12 turnovers in the remaining three quarters. Meanwhile, Salinas, which had nine turnovers in the first quarter, committed just nine turnovers for the rest of the game, four of which came in the final stanza when the outcome was all but sealed.
Following an Elayda 3-pointer, the Balers cut the deficit to eight points with 5:04 remaining, but couldn’t get any closer.
Salinas improves to 4-0 in the TCAL and 15-1 overall.
“Tonight,” Carpenter said, “we clearly could have played better.”
San Benito will look to rebound on Friday when it visits Everett Alvarez at 7 p.m. The Eagles had a bye earlier this week, and haven’t played since last Friday when they lost to Salinas by a 66-35 score.
Notes:
San Benito shot 39 percent (21 of 54) from the field, 38 percent (3 of 8) from the free-throw line, and committed 12 turnovers … Salinas shot 54 percent (27 of 50) from the field, 50 percent (5 of 10) from the free-throw line, and committed 18 turnovers.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SALN 7 13 27 18 65
SANB 16 9 12 13 50
Salinas (65): A. Caldwell 5-6 0-0 12, F. Rogers 8-11 2-2 18, M. Amiya 6-11 1-3 15, M. Johnson 4-6 2-2 12, C. Mariscal 3-4 0-0 6, K. Staunton 1-4 0-0 2, J. Murray 0-2 0-0 0, D. Gaona 0-2 0-0 0, C. Hunsdorfer 0-2 0-0 0, J. Villaneda 0-1 0-0 0.
Three-point goals: A. Caldwell 2, M. Amiya 2, M. Johnson 2.
San Benito (50): J. Belton 2-10 0-0 4, C. Sepulveda 4-11 3-6 11, T. Rickard 3-4 0-1 8, J. Tonascia 4-4 0-1 8, H. Miskin 0-4 0-0 0, J. Canchola 0-2 0-0 0, E. Elayda 6-12 0-0 15, L. Haro 0-2 0-0 0, D. Gutierrez 0-1 0-0 0, R. Di Salvo 2-3 0-0 4, R. Henderson 0-1 0-0 0.
Three-point goals:E. Elayda 3, T. Rickard 2.
