For the first time in 13 years, the San Benito High girls basketball team has won a league championship. The Haybalers finished this season with a share of the title with North Salinas after both went through the 10-game league slate with 8-2 records.
San Benito (17-6) now awaits their seed when the Central Coast Section playoff tournament brackets are announced on Feb. 16. Sophomore guard Bailey Cotter finished the regular-season on a tear, scoring 33, 23 and 28 points in the final three league games.
Cotter’s 33 in the Haybalers’ 65-56 double overtime win over North Salinas on Feb. 9 proved to be the seminal moment of the team’s season.
“Bailey can contort herself and make shots with people around her,” Balers coach Mitch Burley said. “She’s a good rebounder in traffic, has a knack for the ball and can finish in traffic which is unique. She had more than half our points so that’s saying something.”
Emmia Rivera had 13 points and Gia Felice nine for a San Benito team that had lost to North Salinas just four days prior in their first league game of the season. The Feb. 9 contest was the third meeting between the teams this season, as they also played in the Watsonville Tournament in December, with the Balers winning that one in overtime behind Cotter’s career-high 34 points.
The latter victory represented the Balers’ first over their rivals since the 2013 CCS playoffs. Now they’ve beaten the Vikings twice in one season.
How did San Benito finally break through for a league title in Burley’s 10th season as coach? Talent helps, but the intangibles perhaps more so.
“I was impressed with the girls and how hard they played,” he said. “I’ve never had a team put that effort out and it just showed how much they wanted it. There was a time late in the third quarter and we’re down six points, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh shoot, is it slipping away?’ And they refused to let it go and they came back, so that was fun.”
Burley added that the team won despite missing one of their best players, Jocelyn Alexander, who suffered a broken hand in the first North Salinas league game.
“That’s something the team had to overcome and they did a good job of that,” Burley said.
As usual, Felice guarded the opponent’s best player and contributed in every facet of the game, grabbing rebounds, coming up with steals and throwing her body on the ground for loose balls.
“Gia wants that opportunity of guarding the best players and she’s impressive in that way,” Burley said.
Rivera hit a couple of key 3-pointers and did another solid job of getting the team into its offense against North Salinas’ tough defense.
“Emmia handles the ball a lot against their pressure, and that’s hard,” Burley said. “That’s a lot of stress and energy. She’s not a big person and takes a beating, but she’s tough and fun to watch.”
Burley also noted the play of senior wing Mia Villegas, who uses her length and instincts to snatch rebounds against bigger girls.
“Mia’s heart is big and she gets all kinds of rebounds,” Burley said. “Her defense is just incredible and she battled. North Salinas has a strategy when an opponent gets a defensive rebound, two girls will come at you and try to tie you up and steal the ball. I’m telling our girls they have to get out of there before North Salinas starts coming. Well, five to six times in that game Mia got a rebound and she broke through which got us down court. She only had two points, but she had a huge impact on the game and was one of the reasons we won.”
During the team’s official photo shoot day, Burley said the players wanted him to dance with them so they could post it on their Tik Tok accounts or other social media channels.
“I told them, ‘Come on, come on, I’m not doing that,’” he said. “We still had two more games to play after North Salinas, so we hadn’t won anything yet. But then I told them if they win league, I would do it. So it’s a maybe.”
Ultimately, Burley doesn’t judge the team on whether it wins or loses; rather, he has a different standard for what constitutes success.
“It’s about the competition,” he said. “There is a quote I use that if the goal is to compete, winning or losing might not matter. Because you might play a much better team than you and you’ll never win. But if you compete against a better team, you may not win, but you’ll never lose. There’s satisfaction to play as hard as you can. I told the girls if they lost, their effort was still great and that is what they should be satisfied with.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com
