But throwing just about every defense at the Cowboys, which led
to 15 turnovers through the remaining three quarters of the game,
San Benito scraped its way back into the contest by the fourth
quarter and outlasted Salinas in a back-and-forth final stanza en
route to a perhaps closer-than-expected 52-46 victory.
HOLLISTER
It was a different Salinas team on Thursday night. That much was certain after the first quarter.
“They showed in that first quarter they wanted to win this game,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said.
It was a 19-9 deficit for the Haybalers, to be exact.
But throwing just about every defense at the Cowboys, which led to 15 turnovers through the remaining three quarters of the game, San Benito scraped its way back into the contest by the fourth quarter and outlasted Salinas in a back-and-forth final stanza en route to a perhaps closer-than-expected 52-46 victory.
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It was on Jan. 18 when the Balers traveled to Salinas and delivered a 50-15 win over the Cowboys, a game in which the host team was held to four points or less in each of the four quarters — not at all like Thursday’s 19-point effort in the opening period.
“Salinas came out and played well. They were missing their best two players last time,” said Kaplansky, noting the absence of point guard Alexis Warne and go-to scorer Sara Pacheco from the Jan. 18 game.
The two combined for 22 points on Thursday, with Pacheco leading all scorers with a game-high 17 points.
Kaplansky called the January victory over Salinas “misleading.”
“They made a big difference tonight,” he said. “What we tried to express to the kids all week was that they were gonna be a lot better than the first game, that this was gonna be our biggest game of the week.”
The difference was immediately noticeable, of course. The Cowboys jumped out to a 6-2 lead at the start, then finished the quarter on an 11-4 run behind 53 percent shooting.
Salinas’ high percentage from the floor was essentially a result of San Benito’s low percentage. The Balers were 3 of 14 from the field in the first quarter, and Salinas took advantage by converting easy transition baskets down the other end.
The first quarter put a damper on San Benito’s Senior Night, which was celebrating the prep careers of Jackie Echaorre, Cyrena Salinas, Mari Vallejo, Erin Glasspool and Nicole Rianda. But it was the seniors that led the comeback for the Balers — the five-some combined to deposit 45 of San Benito’s 52 points.
Although the Balers did cut the deficit to five points at moments in the second quarter — only to see Salinas push ahead and take a 29-21 lead at the break — the comeback wasn’t convincing until the second half.
With Salinas still leading by 10 midway through the third quarter, Rianda converted a three-point play with four minutes to go to cut the deficit to single digits. Glasspool then followed with a 3-pointer and Echaorre trailed with a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game.
San Benito finally recaptured the lead — it led 2-0 for all of 17 seconds to open the game — when Cyrena Salinas knocked down a contested 3-pointer from the corner, drew the foul and later tacked on the and-1 free throw to supply a 38-37 lead with 38 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
“Bad start,” Kaplansky said of the first quarter. He later added, “But most importantly, I thought we responded well with the situation game.”
San Benito found themselves in a bit of a situation when Rianda, its leading scorer who has been on fire in recent games, fouled out with the Balers grasping to a 48-46 lead with 2:31 to go.
“And it was difficult to score because [the offense] has been catered to her recently,” Kaplansky said of Rianda, who nevertheless finished with a team-high 16 points.
Salinas never managed to score again in the final two and a half minutes, though, while San Benito pulled away by making 4 of 7 at the line. The game was all but sealed when an Echaorre steal and an offensive rebound by Cyrena Salinas limited the Cowboys to just two shots in the final two minutes.
Cyrena Salinas finished with 13 points and Glasspool added nine for San Benito, which improves to 7-4 in the TCAL, 15-8 overall. The Cowboys, meanwhile, drop to 2-8 in the TCAL, 6-15 overall.
The Balers will play in their final regular season game Tuesday when they will travel to Everett Alvarez. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
Notes:
San Benito shot 28 percent (16 of 57) from the field, 60 percent (18 of 30) from the line, and committed 6 turnovers … Salinas shot 44 percent (21 of 48) from the field, 40 percent (4 of 10) from the line, and committed 16 turnovers.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SALN 19 10 8 9 46
SANB 9 12 17 14 52
Salinas (46): V. Perez 5-9 0-0 10, #22 1-3 0-0 2, S. Pacheco 7-19 3-5 17, A. Hlavecek 3-4 0-0 6, A. Warne 2-4 1-3 5, J. Landa 0-2 0-0 0, S. Becerra 3-7 0-2 6.
Three-point goals: None.
San Benito (52): E. Burley 2-4 0-1 4, J. Echaorre 1-6 3-4 5, E. Glasspool 3-13 2-5 9, N. Rianda 6-17 4-6 16, K. Robledo 0-2 3-6 3, C. Salinas 3-8 6-8 13, M. Vallejo 1-6 0-0 2.
Three-point goals: E. Glasspool 1, C. Salinas 1.
