After blowing past Gonzales to open the season last Monday
night, the San Benito boys basketball team dropped three straight
contests
— to Los Altos, to Bellarmine and to Independence — at the
Cupertino Shootout last week, where two tight defeats preceded a
12-point loss on Saturday to close out the tournament.
CUPERTINO
After blowing past Gonzales to open the season last Monday night, the San Benito boys basketball team dropped three straight contests — to Los Altos, to Bellarmine and to Independence — at the Cupertino Shootout last week, where two tight defeats preceded a 12-point loss on Saturday to close out the tournament.
Despite narrowly falling to Los Altos 52-51 and Bellarmine 52-48, the Balers could simply not stay with Independence on Saturday, which jumped out to a 33-23 halftime lead en route to a 63-51 victory.
It was San Benito’s third straight game in as many days.
“We just seemed to run out of gas, just not much energy left out there,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said.
Fatigue may explain San Benito’s poor shooting effort in the contest. Although they were 13 of 13 at the free-throw line, the Balers finished 4 of 23 from behind the arc.
Eric Elayda made three of those 3-pointers, though, and paced San Benito with a team-high 20 points. Cooper Sepulveda, meanwhile, added 14 points behind 8 of 8 shooting at the charity stripe.
Inside, Independence’s Fernando Villanueva clogged the paint. A lineman for the Sixers’ football team, Villanueva is listed at 6-foot-8, 285 pounds.
“He controlled the zone,” Carpenter said.
Independence was much more limited in its scoring distribution — just six scorers total. But four of the Sixers dropped double-digit points totals, including Miguel Villanueva.
Villanueva deposited a game-high 21 points against San Benito, while teammates Kurt Refuerzo, Nikko Rio and Chris Madrid combined to score 38 of the Sixers’ remaining 42 points.
San Benito (1-3) could very well see the 76ers again this week, as the team opens the Independence-hosted Fukishima Invitational on Wednesday night. The Balers will square off against Oak Grove in the opening round.
Tip-off is 5 p.m.
“It doesn’t get easier,” Carpenter said. “But we’re figuring out who we are and what we need to improve upon.”
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 13 10 10 18 51
INDP 20 13 17 13 63
San Benito (51): Elayda 5 3 1-1 20, Rickard 1 1 2-2 7, Sepulveda 3 0 8-8 14, Di Salvo 1 0 1-1 3, Haro 1 0 0-0 2, Canchola 0 0 1-1 1, Tonascia 1 0 0-0 2, Breen 1 0 0-0 2.
Independence (63): Rio 4 1 2-2 13, Refuerzo 3 0 9-9 15, Madrid 1 1 5-5 10, M. Villanueva 9 0 3-3 21, C. Villanueva 1 0 0-0 2, F. Villanueva 1 0 0-0 2.
