Trailing 14-9 after one quarter of play, the San Benito Lady
Balers switched to the zone defense, grabbed a 26-18 lead at
halftime and marched to a 50-30 victory over Mountain View on
Tuesday night in the Dons Club Holiday Tournament at Del Mar High
in San Jose.
SAN JOSE
Trailing 14-9 after one quarter of play, the San Benito Lady Balers switched to the zone defense, grabbed a 26-18 lead at halftime and marched to a 50-30 victory over Mountain View on Tuesday night in the Dons Club Holiday Tournament at Del Mar High in San Jose.
Victoria Aguilera scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Lady Balers, who improve to 10-1 on the season and advance to Thursday’s championship against either Carlmont or Prospect.
Erin Glasspool added nine points for San Benito, while Mountain View’s Alley Watanabe, who opened up the game with a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter, deposited a team-high 11 points.
“They were able to get to the basket in the first quarter off penetration,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “They pitched out to the corner (where Watanabe was), and rallied around that momentum.
“That got them off to a good start.”
Playing a man defense and trailing by five after eight minutes of play, San Benito switched to a full court zone defense — from the 2-2-1 in the full court to the 2-3 in the half court — and managed to pressure Mountain View with a different defensive look.
“We were flat in the first quarter,” Kaplansky said. “I called a timeout and went to a zone and they did great. We were able to prevent the perimeter shooter.”
Keeping the Spartans to single-digit point totals for the second, third and fourth quarters as a result, San Benito outscored Mountain View 17-4 in the second quarter to take a 26-18 lead at halftime.
They led 34-25 heading into the final period.
“The good thing is the girls just dug in and played an aggressive zone,” Kaplansky said.
San Benito will play in the Dons Club championship on Thursday for the second year in a row. Last year, the Lady Balers won four straight games, including a 66-37 victory over Evergreen Valley in the championship, to claim the Dons Club crown.
The championship game will be held at Del Mar High at 4 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
MV 14 4 7 5 30
SB 9 17 8 16 50
San Benito (50): C. Salinas 0 1 0-0 3, M. Vallejo 1 0 0-0 2, E. Glasspool 2 1 2-2 9, M. Cortez 1 0 0-0 2, C. Pate 2 0 1-2 3, V. Casalegno 2 0 1-5 5, E. Miskin 0 0 1-2 1, N. Rianda 1 0 0-0 2, V. Aguilera 10 0 3-5 23.
JV Note:
The San Benito girls junior varsity basketball team took one step closer to the JV Winter Jam Tournament championship on Tuesday when it defeated host Alisal 53-28.
Ellie Burley led San Benito with 11 points.
The Lady Balers will now play for the tourney title on Wednesday night against Aptos. Tip-off is 8:30 p.m. at Alisal High in Salinas.
The Lady Balers got off to a slow start in the first quarter on Tuesday night and were unable to score within the first two to three minutes of regulation, as Alisal showed a zone defense that caused problems early on.
“We had a little bit of a hard time getting started on offense,” San Benito head coach Karen Fortino said. “They zoned us, and we’re so used to people coming out and manning us.
“But we were able to recover, get some good passes and some great rebounds.”
Leading 11-8 after one quarter and 25-19 at halftime, San Benito broke the game open in the third quarter when it outscored Alisal by a 17-3 margin.
Olivia Diaz, who had eight points in the game, knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the third period, while teammate Kayla Ortiz added six points.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 11 14 17 11 53
ALIS 8 11 3 6 28
