North Salinas’ depth, coupled with San Benito’s struggles from
the offensive end, supplied the host Vikings with a 42-28 victory
over the Lady Balers, their first loss in five games and just their
second loss this season.
SALINAS
San Benito’s defensive game plan against North Salinas on Monday night worked as well as could have been expected.
“I felt like we came out and played good defense and identified their two best players,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “Our defensive game plan was to face guard (Jasmin) Rowland and deny (Alyssa) Ayala at the perimeter.”
And San Benito did that.
But North Salinas’ depth, coupled with San Benito’s struggles from the offensive end, supplied the host Vikings with a key 42-28 victory over the Lady Balers, their first loss in five games and just their second loss this season.
San Benito is now 1-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 12-2 overall.
Both teams were undefeated in TCAL play entering the contest, and even shared the league title last season.
But while the Lady Balers managed to shut down North Salinas’ top two scoring threats in Rowland and Ayala — Rowland had five points in the game, Ayala had seven — the Vikings received offensive efforts from Julia Ashen, who deposited a game-high 15 points, and Amy Woo, who pocketed 10.
“I just felt like Julia Ashen was the difference in the game,” Kaplansky said. “She did a good job attacking us from the perimeter … and she was getting to the basket anytime she wanted.”
Meanwhile, Woo forced her fair share of turnovers on San Benito, and scored the bulk of her 10 points on transition lay-ups.
San Benito’s defensive game plan is to hold opposing teams to an average of 10 points per quarter, “and we did the job defensively,” Kaplansky said. But after trailing North High 9-8 after one quarter, the Lady Balers fell behind 19-10 at halftime, and couldn’t keep up offensively.
Victoria Aguilera led the Lady Balers with 14 points on Monday, including a 6 of 8 performance from the charity stripe. But San Benito’s guard play struggled offensively, shooting 3 of 31 from the field.
“Our guards need to find ways to put the ball in the basket right now,” Kaplansky said. “It’s gonna be a challenge if we don’t get our confidence back up from the perimeter.”
San Benito and North Salinas (3-0 TCAL, 13-2) shared the TCAL title last year, and the Lady Balers will need to rebound on Thursday against Gilroy (2-0 TCAL, 10-4) in order to remain in the TCAL hunt.
Tip-off is 7 p.m. in Hollister
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SB 8 2 12 6 28
NS 9 10 12 11 42
San Benito (28): J. Echaorre 0 0 1-2 1, C. Salinas 2 0 0-0 4, E. Glasspool 0 1 1-2 4, C. Pate 2 0 1-3 5, V. Aguilera 4 0 6-8 14.
JV Note:
The San Benito girls junior varsity basketball team lost to host North Salinas 36-24 on Monday night, evening its record in Tri-County Athletic League play at 1-1.
San Benito is now 8-2 overall.
“We kind of came out slow and had a hard time getting out again,” San Benito head coach Karen Fortino said. “We prepared from them to press-break us and we were able to break their press. But they just played very good man-on defense on my point guard and we just couldn’t seem to get our offense started.”
The Lady Balers trailed 9-4 after one quarter, 22-8 at halftime.
Ellie Burley led San Benito with eight points, while Victoria Bustamante added five points and Carrie Gutierrez had four.
The Lady Balers managed to outscore the Vikings 9-5 in the third period, but couldn’t continue the trend in the final stanza.
“They never gave up and played to the final tick of the clock, which is always nice to see,” Fortino said.
San Benito will return home on Thursday night to face Gilroy. Tip-off is 5:30 p.m.
“We’ve got to come out a little more intense in these games, especially in the TCAL, if we expect to win,” Fortino said.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SB 4 4 9 7 24
NS 9 13 5 9 36
