Although it jumped out to an early lead against Bellarmine, the
San Benito boys basketball team was unable to hold on to its
initial cushion Friday night as the Bells defeated the Balers 52-48
in the consolation bracket of the Cupertino Shootout.
CUPERTINO
Although it jumped out to an early lead against Bellarmine, the San Benito boys basketball team was unable to hold on to its initial cushion Friday night as the Bells defeated the Balers 52-48 in the consolation bracket of the Cupertino Shootout.
San Benito controlled a 13-9 lead after one quarter against Bellarmine, but the Bells closed out the first half on a 10-0 run to take a 27-20 lead at the break.
“And we never took the lead again,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said.
The Balers did remain close with the Bells throughout the contest, though. They cut into Bellarmine’s lead in the third quarter, and trailed 35-31 entering the final stanza. San Benito then made it a three-point deficit with 40 seconds left in regulation, but were unable to find the equalizer in the waning moments.
“That’s as close as we got,” Carpenter added.
Eric Elayda led the Balers with a team-high 20 points, Tyler Rickard added 16 and Ryan Di Salvo had nine, although only five players cracked the box score for San Benito.
Also, for much of the game, San Benito was without the services of starting forward Cooper Sepulveda, who got into early foul trouble and later fouled out in the third quarter.
Bellarmine, meanwhile, had eight different scorers and were anchored by Steve Karr’s 20 points.
A year ago, San Benito (1-2) lost to Bellarmine 68-40 at the Independence Fukishima Invitational, a tournament the Balers will open on Tuesday.
“It was a good effort and we played fairly well, but we didn’t win,” Carpenter said. “This is a good tournament, a good early-season check.”
San Benito will close out the Cupertino Shootout on Saturday against Independence in the consolation bracket. Tip-off is 3 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 13 7 11 17 48
BELL 9 18 8 17 52
San Benito (48): Sepulveda 0 0 1-2 1, Elayda 4 3 3-3 20, Rickard 4 2 2-4 16, Di Salvo 4 0 1-1 9, Breen 0 0 2-2 2.
Bellarmine (52): Chapman 2 3 3-4 16, Mendy 0 1 0-0 3, McCue 2 0 1-3 5, Verner 1 0 0-0 2, Grion 0 0 4-4 4, Karr 8 1 1-5 20, Galli 0 0 1-2 1, Goudreau 0 0 1-2 1.
