Despite good team effort, San Benito loses 51-49 to Salinas
Salinas – Despite a solid effort, the San Benito girls basketball team dropped its Tri-County Athletic League opener Thursday to Salinas, falling 51-49.
The Haybalers continually rallied from deficits to make the game interesting, but couldn’t get over the hump and fell to 3-9 overall.
“Salinas is always tough and it’s always tough to play in Salinas,” coach Al Rowe said. “I’m real proud of the girls. We’ll take this as a learning experience.”
The first quarter started slowly for both teams before ending with a flourish. With San Benito trailing 7-3 midway through the period, leading scorer Vanessa Farias made her first appearance and quickly got on the board with a behind-the-back dribble and then drive to the hoop.
The ‘Balers got the lead with a strong driving layup as Elena Fata was fouled on the play and converted the three-point play for an 8-7 lead. Farias added two free throws and a runner as San Benito led 12-11 at the end of one.
Salinas tried to take control of the game in the second quarter and opened a six-point lead with less than four minutes to go.
But the ‘Balers wouldn’t go away. Megan Halstead scored inside and after a Vanessa Casalegno free throw, Morgan O’Laughlin hit a jumper to trim the lead to one.
After the Cowboys’ Fabiola Castro hit a free-throw, San Benito’s Katie O’Brien connected twice from the line and the game was tied at 24 at halfime.
Salinas’ Megan Land had the hot hand to start the second half and helped the Cowboys quickly jump on top by sandwiching a pair of 3-pointers around a layup off a ‘Baler turnover. Hannah Larick added a putback and Salinas had a 36-26 lead.
But once again, San Benito proved to be resilient. It went on 9-0 run, fueled by four Farias free throws, to trim the deficit to one and the quarter ended with the ‘Balers facing a 40-37 deficit.
Much like the first three quarters, Salinas started the fourth quarter hot, going on an 8-2 run to lengthen its lead to 48-39.
But also like the first three quarters, San Benito had a run of its own.
The ‘Balers scored nine straight points, capped off by a Farias’ 3-pointer to tie the game with a little more than three minutes left. A jumper by Sarah Hayes gave the lead back to Salinas for good.
Casalegno had a pair of chances to tie it but missed one of her two free throws with 1:46 left that left San Benito trailing 50-49.
With under a minute to go, she had a look underneath, but the shot wouldn’t fall.
The Cowboys iced it when Fata was called for a flagrant foul with 5.9 seconds left and Mia Musones connected on a free throw and Salinas ran the clock out.
San Benito again got a solid effort from plenty of players and had eight girls find the score sheet.
“It was a good team effort tonight,” assistant coach Karen Fortino said. Farias led the way with 22 points and O’Laughlin and Fata both had six.
San Benito 12 12 13 12 – 49
Salinas 11 13 16 11 – 51
SB – O‚Brien 0 2-2 2, Fata 3 0-1 6, Farias 6 8-9 22, Russel 0 1-3 1, Telles 1 0-0 2, O‚Laughlin 2 2-4 6, Halstead 2 0-2 4, Casalegno 1 3-8 5. Totals 15 16-29 49.
Sal – Castillo 2 0-0 4, Castro 0 1-2 1, Hammer 2 0-0 4, Musones 3 3-4 9, Land 4 2-2 12, Hayes 1 0-0 2, Milsen 0 3-4 3, Larick 4 0-0 8, Osgood 0 2-2
2. Totals 16 11-14 51.
Three-point goals – Farias 2, Land 2. Fouled out – none.
Junior Varsity: San Benito made a furious fourth-quarter comeback – rallying from as much as 10 points down – to force overtime by tying the game at 50-50 at the end of regulation.
Despite the ‘Balers taking a 52-50 lead in the extra period, Salinas was able to find enough to recover and scored the final five points of the game in a 55-52 win.
