Kyle Vallejo scored 13 points and the San Benito Haybalers
managed to stave off North Monterey County 52-44 Tuesday night at
the Condor Christmas Classic in Castroville. The Balers will
advance to Wednesday’s tournament championship as a result, when
they will play Menlo-Atherton.
CASTROVILLE
Kyle Vallejo scored 13 points and the San Benito Haybalers managed to stave off North Monterey County 52-44 Tuesday night at the Condor Christmas Classic in Castroville. The Balers will advance to Wednesday’s tournament championship as a result, when they will play Menlo-Atherton.
“They’re just really well prepared,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said of Menlo-Atherton, which defeated Salinas during Tuesday’s semifinal round. “They play really smart and really well together.”
The Balers may just need all four quarters to defeat M-A. On Tuesday against North Monterey County, San Benito led by as many as 21 points during the second half only to be outscored by the Condors in the fourth quarter by a 15-6 margin.
“We didn’t play well,” Carpenter said. “They were inspired. It was on their home court, and it wasn’t one of our best games. But we did get the win.”
San Benito outscored North County for the first three quarters, and held leads of 15-8 after the first quarter and 28-18 at halftime. Entering the fourth period, the Balers led 46-29.
But able to slow the game down with frequent trips to the free-throw line — they were 15 of 26 from the charity stripe compared to San Benito’s 4 of 7 — the Condors managed to bring the deficit to within single digits in the final stanza.
“We played poorly at the end,” Carpenter said. “They hit two 3-pointers and got a bunch of free throws in the fourth quarter, so we didn’t protect the lead.”
While Vallejo led the Balers with 13 points, and even added four rebounds, four steals and three assists, Isidro Corral added eight points for San Benito, and teammates Tyler Rickard, Cooper Sepulveda and Eric Elayda each added seven points apiece.
San Benito and Menlo-Atherton will square off Wednesday afternoon for the tournament championship at North Monterey County High. Tip-off is 3:30 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 15 13 18 6 52
NOMC 8 10 11 15 44
San Benito (52): J. Belton 2 0 0-0 4, K. Vallejo 6 0 1-2 13, T. Rickard 3 0 1-2 7, C. Sepulveda 1 1 2-2 7, E. Elayda 2 1 0-0 7, E. Olbring 3 0 0-0 6, I. Corral 4 0 0-1 8.
