A strong first half evolved into a disappointing finish on
Wednesday night for the San Benito Haybalers, which, despite
leading 34-27 at halftime against host Palma, couldn’t hold its
second-half lead and lost to the Chieftains by a 65-48 margin.
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SALINAS
A strong first half evolved into a disappointing finish on Wednesday night for the San Benito Haybalers, which, despite leading 34-27 at halftime against host Palma, couldn’t hold its second-half lead and lost to the Chieftains by a 65-48 margin.
Foul trouble and a poor shooting performance from 3-point range helped lead to San Benito’s undoing. It is just the second loss in the last eight games for the Balers, who fall to 2-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 7-8 overall.
Head coach Tracy Carpenter called it a “tale of two halves.” San Benito scored 16 points in the first quarter, 18 points in the second quarter, and took a favorable seven-point lead to the break.
“We just played really well,” Carpenter said. “We played good defense and made some good shot decisions.”
But at the tail end of the first half the Balers got into a bit of foul trouble, with Jordan Belton picking up his third and fourth fouls. Belton finished with nine points in the game, but was also guarding Palma’s leading scorer, Noah Allen, whom he limited to just seven points in the first half.
Allen added 12 points in the second half to finish with a game-high 19.
“That changed everything,” Carpenter said of the foul trouble, which also saw post players Cooper Sepulveda and Jacob Tonascia finish with four fouls apiece.
“We just didn’t play as well (in the second half),” Carpenter added. “We weren’t as tough as we needed to be.”
The Balers were limited to just 14 points in the second half. Palma erased the halftime deficit midway through the third quarter, then blew the game open in the final stanza by outscoring San Benito by a 23-7 margin.
Meanwhile, trying to play catch-up, the Balers looked for the 3-point attempt in the third and fourth quarters. “But it just wasn’t happening,” Carpenter said.
San Benito was 5 of 25 from behind the arc on Wednesday night.
“We obviously played really poorly in the second half. We fell apart,” Carpenter said. “We need to be more mentally tough, and we need to be better when the pressure is on and better in difficult situations, like when we’re in foul trouble.”
Sepulveda still managed to lead the Balers with 13 points, while both Hiram Miskin and Eric Elayda added eight points each, with Jacob Tonascia scoring six.
Palma improves to 2-1 in the TCAL, 10-5 overall with the win.
San Benito is back on the road Friday night when it will travel to Salinas to take on Alisal, which was battling Everett Alvarez on Wednesday. At press time, the Trojans are 0-1 in the TCAL, 5-7 overall, and were losers in their last four contests.
Tip-off is 7 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 16 18 7 7 48
PALM 12 15 15 23 65
San Benito (48): J. Belton 2 1 2-2 9, C. Sepulveda 1 2 5-6 13, E. Elayda 2 1 1-2 8, T. Rickard 0 0 2-2 2, J. Tonascia 2 0 2-2 6, R. Henderson 1 0 0-0 2, H. Miskin 2 1 1-2 8.
