San Benito tops Skyline 69-34 Friday, falls to Oakland Tech
54-44 at elite seven-team invitational
OAKLAND
The San Benito girls basketball team went 1-1 at the Skyline Shootout last weekend, opening up their two-game slate with an impressive 69-34 victory over host Skyline on Friday before falling to Oakland Tech on Saturday, 54-44.
The defending Central Coast Section Division I champions was invited to the seven-team shootout, which featured such Northern California powerhouses like St. Ignatius, McClymonds, Northgate and Silver Creek.
And the Lady ‘Balers certainly made a statement in their first match against host Skyline (5-5), which lost to Berkeley in last year’s Nor-Cal playoffs, jumping all over the Titans 18-4 in the first quarter.
San Benito held a comfortable 37-16 lead at halftime.
“It was unbelievable how they played. What was impressive was the tempo we set,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “We outran them and kept a steady tempo through all four quarters.”
The Lady ‘Balers (4-2) received 34 points from two post-position players alone. Megan Halstead led San Benito with 24 points and teammate Lauren Ademek had 10. Vanessa Farias had 18 on the night.
“We played our best game of the year against Skyline,” Kaplansky said.
And after opening up a 16-9 lead against Oakland Tech on Saturday – which seemed to carryover from the Skyline game, Kaplansky said – San Benito nearly made a clean sweep through Oakland as well.
But despite trailing by a narrow 24-22 margin at halftime, San Benito couldn’t keep pace with Oakland Tech in the third quarter, as leading scorer Yemona Davidson scored 14 of her 23 points in the game.
“We just lost her on the defensive end,” Kaplansky said. “We gave her a couple of opportunities and she took advantage of them.”
The Bulldogs, which have already trumped 2007-08 Nor-Cal qualifier Kennedy High (Sacramento) and even downed Silver Creek 48-45 in Friday’s match at the Shootout, outscored the Lady ‘Balers 23-12 in the third quarter.
San Benito rebounded in the fourth, outscoring Oakland Tech 10-9.
“We played a great first half, but unfortunately we ran out of gas,” Kaplansky said. “But we played three solid quarters against a top team in Northern California.”
Farias led San Benito with 12 points, while Ademek and Halstead checked in with nine points and eight points, respectively.
San Benito will be off until Saturday when they will play Orinda’s Miramonte (3-2) at the Presentation Shootout in San Jose. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.
JV Note:
The San Benito junior varsity basketball team went 3-0 at the Santa Cruz JV Invitational last week, earning first place with ease after victories over Harbor, Aptos and league rival Salinas in the championship final.
Led by 12 points from Michelle Fortino, 11 points from Cyrena Salinas and 10 from Mari Vallejo, the Lady ‘Balers beat Harbor 57-11 in the opener.
Expecting to open against Stevenson, though, San Benito head coach Karen Fortino said it was a bit of a surprise to play Harbor, but the Lady ‘Balers were able to implement a “pretty intense man-to-man defense,” nonetheless.
San Benito shot 43 percent from the field and forced 19 turnovers.
In their semifinal match, San Benito downed Aptos 58-22 behind 14 points from Michelle Fortino, 12 from Salinas and eight by Kim Warner, setting up the championship match against the Salinas Cowboys.
But not even their league rivals could slow them down, as San Benito cruised to a 67-29 win the title game.
Warner dropped 20 on the Cowboys, while Cyrena Salinas added 12 and Melisah Cortez had eight.
“The girls executed just unbelievably well,” Coach Fortino said. “They understand different defenses that we threw at the other team and they executed.”
Both Michelle Fortino and Cyrena Salinas were named to the all-tournament team, while Salinas earned MVP honors.
The Lady ‘Balers will return to the court on Dec. 23 at home to Harbor. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
