Although it took a fourth-quarter rout for the San Benito boys’
basketball team to defeat Alisal in their previous game on Jan. 14,
the Balers made sure Wednesday’s game against the Trojans was all
but sealed entering the final period. Behind a team-high 12 points
by Jordan Belton, San Benito jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the first
quarter and cruised to a 68-42 victory over visiting Alisal
Wednesday at Holister’s Mattson Gym
— the Balers’ fifth straight win.
HOLLISTER
Although it took a fourth-quarter rout for the San Benito boys’ basketball team to defeat Alisal in their previous game on Jan. 14, the Balers made sure Wednesday’s game against the Trojans was all but sealed entering the final period.
Behind a team-high 12 points by Jordan Belton, San Benito jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 68-42 victory over visiting Alisal Wednesday at Holister’s Mattson Gym — the Balers’ fifth straight win.
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San Benito is now 8-2 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 13-9 overall. With just two games remaining in the regular season, the Balers will visit undefeated Salinas on Friday night before rounding out the league schedule at home to Everett Alvarez next Wednesday.
Tip-off for both games is 7 p.m.
Wednesday’s game against Alisal, meanwhile, played out a bit differently than the previous time the two teams met on Jan. 14. In that game, the Balers actually trailed the Trojans by a 50-46 margin entering the fourth quarter before San Benito closed out the game on a 17-6 run en route to a 62-56 win.
On Wednesday, San Benito was up 23-9 after the first quarter. Although Alisal did manage to slightly trim the deficit by halftime, to 37-26, the Balers went on a 15-5 run through the third quarter, entering the final stanza with a 21-point lead.
No need for any come-from-behind heroics in the fourth quarter.
San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said the key this time around was the defense on Alisal leading scorer Marc Farfan, who led the Trojans with 29 points against San Benito on Jan. 14.
On Wednesday, the TCALs third-highest leading scorer was limited to 15 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Cooper Sepulveda, Tyler Rickard and Belton all guarded Farfan throughout the game.
“We did a much better job on him,” Carpenter said.
He later added, “They compete really well.”
Sepulveda added 10 points for the Balers, who had 12 different players make the box score Wednesday. Eric Elayda added nine points and Rickard chimed in with seven, while Michael Breen finished with four points after making what Carpenter believed was a 70-foot 3-point shot to end the first half.
Alisal remains winless in the TCAL, falling to 0-9 in league and 5-15 overall.
The top two teams in the TCAL — the Cowboys and Balers — will meet in Salinas Friday night at 7 p.m. Salinas (9-0 TCAL, 20-1) has won both previous contests against San Benito this year.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
ALIS 9 17 5 11 42
SANB 23 14 15 16 68
San Benito (68): J. Belton 3 1 3-3 12, B. Becerra 1 0 0-0 2, I. Acfalle 0 2 0-1 6, C. Sepulveda 1 1 5-6 10, E. Elayda 1 1 4-4 9, T. Rickard 2 1 0-0 7, D. Gutierrez 0 1 1-2 4, R. Di Salvo 1 0 0-0 2, J. Tonascia 2 0 1-2 5, R. Henderson 1 1 0-0 5, H. Miskin 1 0 0-0 2, M. Breen 0 1 1-2 4.
