San Benito passes first hurdle, defeats Salinas 50-29
Consider it a marathon with hurdles.
The Tri-County Athletic League season kicked off Friday night when the San Benito Lady ‘Balers came upon their first hurdle of the year in the long race toward a league crown.
And they cleared it with ease.
Vanessa Farias scored 16 points and Bri Romero returned from a four-game absence with 10 as San Benito leaped past a visiting Salinas squad 50-29 at Mattson Gym.
The win pushes San Benito to 10-4 on the year overall, but more importantly, 1-0 in the TCAL.
“This is huge. This is a big confidence-builder for our young program,” coach David Kaplansky said. “It’s a 12-hurdle race.”
The hurdles are, of course, in reference to San Benito’s 12 league games this season – 12 league games in which the Lady ‘Balers went 5-7 in last year. In fact, it took four games for San Benito to pocket their first league win last year, while the squad hasn’t won a season opener since the 2004-05 campaign.
On Friday, though, they changed all that by giving Salinas an array of different defensive looks that kept the short-handed Cowboys guessing.
“The game plan was to play tough, man-to-man defense,” Kaplansky said. “The game plan was to run early and execute our half-court offense, and a big factor was in our post.”
In the second quarter, the Lady ‘Balers upped the pressure with a full-court press and a half-court zone defense that led to 10 of Salinas’ 37 turnovers on the night, and held the Cowboys to just three points in the quarter, all of which came from the free-throw line.
Salinas was without the services of their leading scorer, Mia Musones, who recently went down with an injury and is out for the season. They could have used the play from their star guard, who was averaging almost 14 points per game, as the Cowboys shot a lowly 11 of 38 from the field.
San Benito took 18 more shots than Salinas, which was a result of the high turnover margin (37-17), while the return of Romero to the lineup provided some added intensity.
Romero was absent for the previous four games with an injury, and she helped hold Salinas’ second-leading scorer, Hannah Larick, to just eight points.
“We exposed them as far as not being able to handle the pressure,” Kaplansky said. “I thought we did a wonderful job on Larick. Our post players made the game really difficult for her.”
The Lady ‘Balers held a 29-12 halftime lead, and cruised in the second half toward the victory. The squad shot 38 percent (21 of 56) for the game, 50 percent (5 of 10) from the line.
San Benito will play Wednesday at Notre Dame (1-0, 9-6), who defeated Gilroy on Friday 38-16. Tip-off is in Salinas at 7 p.m.
“This was our first hurdle,” Kaplansky said. “The defensive pressure was outstanding, and we’re on to Notre Dame, the next hurdle.”
Team 1 2 3 4 F
SB 13 13 12 12 50
SAL 9 3 5 12 29
SB (50) – Aguilera 1-3 2-2 4, Ademek 2-5 0-0 4, Bugarin 1-1 0-0 2, Casalegno 1-1 0-0 2, Farias 7-16 0-0 16, Fata 3-7 1-3 8, O’Brien 1-1 0-0 2, Romero 4-15 2-3 10, Zamani 1-3 0-0 2.
Three-point goals: Farias 2, Fata 1.
JV Note: The San Benito junior varsity girls basketball team narrowly lost to Salinas 37-35 Friday at Mattson Gym in Hollister.
“It was a very tough game,” coach Karen Fortino said. “The girls definitely had a good week of practice and that definitely showed with them.”
Melisah Cortez had eight points and two blocks, Danielle Acosta had seven points and Crystal Perreira and Arielle Rianda each supplied six points. Kim Warner added a pair of blocks for San Benito.
The JV team will play Wednesday at Notre Dame. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
Frosh Note: The San Benito freshmen girls basketball team started their league season on the right foot Friday when they defeated Salinas 45-20 at Mattson Gym.
San Benito (1-0, 14-1) opened the game with a nice cushion, outscoring Salinas 15-0 in the first quarter.
“We started off very hot and took control of the game early with our press and fast breaks,” coach Tom Dean said.
Mari Vallejo had 14 points, Jessica Vest had 11 points, six rebounds and seven steals, and Nicole Rianda added eight points and six rebounds. Erin Glasspool had four steals.
San Benito will play at Notre Dame on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 4 p.m.
