After posting an impressive one-point overtime victory against
Alisal last Friday, the San Benito Haybalers suffered a
disappointing 62-47 defeat on the road in Salinas on Wednesday
night, and fall to 3-3 in the Tri-County Athletic League as a
result.
SALINAS
After posting an impressive overtime victory against Alisal last Friday, the San Benito Haybalers suffered a disappointing 62-47 defeat to Salinas on the road Wednesday night, and fall to 3-3 in the Tri-County Athletic League as a result.
“It just wasn’t there,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said of the loss.
Jordan Belton led the Balers with 13 points and Cooper Sepulveda added 11 points.
Although the Cowboys (2-4 TCAL, 11-6) were considered to be TCAL favorites at the beginning of the season — Salinas advanced to the Division I championship last year — the team has been playing without leading scorer Kyle Vasher in recent weeks, and had lost four games in a row entering Wednesday’s contest.
A 6-foot-5 guard, Vasher was averaging 17 points per game, but has been sidelined with a back injury. He did not play on Wednesday night against the Balers.
Nevertheless, the Cowboys jumped out to a comfortable 34-16 lead at halftime after they outscored the Balers 18-3 in the second quarter, and never looked back.
“It was tough because we had an opportunity there,” Carpenter said.
“We didn’t get off to a great start. It just didn’t react well to the situation.”
Despite the loss of Vasher, Salinas is still blessed with plenty of size. On Wednesday, the Cowboys were anchored by 6-foot-7 forward Frank Rogers.
“He controlled the boards, blocked a lot of shots, changed a lot of shots,” Carpenter said, who also noted 6-foot-5, 265-pound center Chandler Hubbard. “They’re a big team.”
The 18-3 second quarter proved to be the difference, though. San Benito and Salinas matched outputs through the first, third and fourth quarters — 44-44 — and Carpenter felt 47 total points is a number the Balers can win with.
“But we’ve got to do a better job on defense and grind it out, and we didn’t really do either,” the head coach added. “Any of the good teams in our league, we can’t give up 62 (points) and win. We just can’t.
“We have to play really intelligently against teams like that.”
The Balers will look to rebound on Friday when they will host Everett Alvarez (2-4 TCAL, 11-7) at Hollister’s Mattson Gym. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 13 3 12 19 47
SALN 16 18 18 10 62
San Benito (47): J. Belton 4 1 2-3 13, J. Canchola 0 2 0-0 6, C. Sepulveda 4 1 0-1 11, E. Elayda 1 1 1-1 6, J. Hunt 0 1 0-0 3, D. Wingo 0 0 2-2 2, J. Hunter 1 0 0-0 2, E. Olbring 1 0 2-3 4.
