The San Benito Haybalers defeated the visiting Monta Vista
Matadors 54-49 in the first round of the Central Coast Section
Division I playoffs on Tuesday night at Hollister’s Mattson
Gym.
HOLLISTER
The dagger never really came on Tuesday night, although neither did San Benito’s second-half demons.
“It’s doing what you need to do in order to win,” Balers head coach Tracy Carpenter said, “and we haven’t always done that.”
Nothing flashy or show-stopping — except for perhaps Jordan Belton’s 40-foot buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter — Tuesday’s Central Coast Section Division I matchup between No. 12 San Benito (14-11) and No. 13 Monta Vista (13-12) didn’t necessarily feature any singular moment for the winning team, just, well, gritty team basketball.
Behind five players dropping double-digit point totals, the Balers ended their four-game losing skid Tuesday night when they prevailed in a 54-49 victory over visiting Monta Vista — and the win could not have come a moment too soon. Never leading by more than five points during the second half, San Benito closed out the Matadors from the free-throw line with a 4 of 6 performance in the final minute, staving off elimination in the process.
“It was one of the better games we’ve played,” said Carpenter, whose Balers were 16 of 26 from the charity stripe, 4 of 10 from 3-point range on Tuesday. “I don’t know what the stats are, but we shoot way better at home than away.”
Shooting high percentages, not to mention taking advantage of scoring spurts, will likely decide whether San Benito advances past No. 5 Carlmont (21-5) on Thursday night in Belmont, where the Scots are 13-0 this season.
“Maybe we can get them out of their game,” said San Benito senior forward Kyle Vallejo, who had 10 points on Tuesday.
Carpenter shortened his bench for the postseason and played eight against Monta Vista as opposed to his usual 10-man rotation. Only five Balers found the box score in the game, too, although all five scored in double digits.
Devin Wingo chimed in with 10 points, both Cooper Sepulveda and Tyler Rickard deposited 11 points apiece and Jordan Belton contributed a team-high 12 points, including five in the second quarter.
“I think when we got the lead, we kept trying to go up, go up, and we were forcing it a little bit,” Belton said. “But coach said when we get the ball, we need to hold on to the ball a little more.
“That’s how we’ve been playing (this season). We take less possessions and better shots than more rushed shots and having to get back on ‘D.'”
In the game, Monta Vista, anchored by a game-high 19 points from Krish Rangarajan, took 13 more shots than San Benito.
In the second quarter, though, the Balers broke out on a 12-2 run to grab a 23-15 lead — the spurt bookended by a pair of 3-pointers from Sepulveda. But the Balers went cold from there, held to just a single point for nearly four minutes to close out the half.
And San Benito’s eight-point lead quickly evaporated into a two-point edge at the break.
“When we went up by eight, I was thinking we need to capitalize,” Vallejo said. “But they called a timeout and calmed the crowd down.
“But those are our chances we need to capitalize on, especially when we play Carlmont on Thursday.”
The second-quarter run by the Balers was the only digression from an otherwise back-and-forth game, which began slow for both teams as nerves and pressure defense took over.
“When they pressed us, we were tentative,” Vallejo said.
Turnovers marred play early on — the two teams combining for 13 turnovers in the first quarter, 33 in the game. And although San Benito’s second-quarter run was a change from the gameplay, the two teams exchanged both baskets and turnovers through most of the third quarter as well.
“They hit big shots down the stretch. When a bucket needed to be made, they hit it and we didn’t,” Monta Vista head coach Matt Tait, whose Matadors had won six of their previous seven games entering the contest, not to mention the El Camino League championship. “We made stupid, young turnovers all night, just shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly, and when they needed to capitalize, they did.”
Although Monta Vista’s Rangarajan managed to find the big basket when needed, despite the Balers double-teaming him in the paint, Belton’s trey from roughly 40 feet to end the third quarter, then a put-back jumper from five feet to open the fourth quarter, supplied San Benito with a six-point cushion late in the game.
“We had a few, big mistakes down at the end,” Tait said.
Tyler Rickard’s 3-pointer from the corner with 45 seconds remaining pushed San Benito back out to six points a second time, but Rangarajan answered with a three-point play when he was fouled in the paint just 10 seconds later.
Nevertheless, the Balers’ free-throw performance, which took a hit in the third and fourth quarters with 6 of 12 shooting display, kept San Benito afloat in the final minute when Belton and Wingo went 4 of 6 from the stripe.
“It’s good to finally get over that hump, especially after a four-game losing streak, to come back and get the win,” Vallejo said.
Now, the Balers get to do it all over again at Carlmont on Thursday night.
“It’s gonna be a tough ask,” Carpenter said. “But we our first 11 games on the road (to start the season), so we’re used to going places.”
Notes:
San Benito shot 39 percent (17 of 44) from the field, 62 percent (16 of 26) from the free-throw line … Monta Vista shot 35 percent (20 of 57) from the field, 71 percent (5 of 7) from the free-throw line … The Balers committed 16 turnovers, while the Matadors committed 17 turnovers … Monta Vista’s bench outscored San Benito’s 12-0.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
MV 10 12 15 12 49
SB 7 17 17 13 54
Monta Vista (49): K. Wu 2-10 0-0 4, R. Michelfelder 4-10 1-2 10, J. Huang 3-5 1-2 8, A. Hsu 1-4 0-0 2, K. Rangarajan 8-18 1-1 19, M. Chavan 2-3 2-2 6.
Three-point goals: R. Michelfelder 1, J. Huang 1, K. Rangarajan 2.
San Benito (54): J. Belton 3-9 5-9 12, K. Vallejo 3-5 4-8 10, D. Wingo 4-6 2-2 10, T. Rickard 4-13 2-2 11, C. Sepulveda 3-7 3-5 11.
Three-point goals: J. Belton 1, T. Rickard 1, C. Sepulveda 2.
