A 23-point fourth quarter lifted the San Benito boys’ basketball
team to a comfortable 53-36 victory over host Everett Alvarez on
Friday in Salinas. The final score
— most notably, the point differential of 17 points — was
perhaps not reflective of the game itself, however. After all, the
Balers entered the final period with a slim, 30-29 lead over the
Eagles.
SALINAS
A 23-point fourth quarter lifted the San Benito boys’ basketball team to a comfortable 53-36 victory over host Everett Alvarez on Friday in Salinas.
The final score — most notably, the point differential of 17 points — was perhaps not reflective of the game itself, however. After all, the Balers entered the final period with a slim, 30-29 lead over the Eagles.
But by outscoring Alvarez 23-7 in the final stanza, the Balers turned in a sizable win to improve to 4-2 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 9-9 overall.
“We turned up the defense, and the defense turned into offense,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said of the fourth quarter.
Tyler Rickard scored all seven of his points in the final period, while Jordan Belton, who led the Balers with 13 points on Friday night, scored 11 of his team-high total in the second half.
Eric Elayda added nine points behind three 3-pointers, and Cooper Sepulveda chimed in with eight points and 10 rebounds in the game.
Jacob Tonascia had eight rebounds and four points for San Benito.
“It was a good win,” Carpenter said. “But we didn’t start too well.”
The Balers actually trailed Alvarez 5-4 after the first quarter and 19-16 at halftime, before outscoring the host team by a 14-10 margin in the third quarter to garner a one-point lead entering the final period.
Alvarez drops to 1-4 in the TCAL as a result, 8-8 overall.
San Benito will enjoy a bye next Wednesday before it kicks off the second half of the league schedule, which will start Friday with a matchup against the North Salinas Vikings.
Tip-off is 7 p.m.
The two teams previously met on Jan. 5 in Salinas, where the Balers delivered a 63-43 victory. North High is currently 1-4 in league play.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 4 12 14 23 53
ALVR 5 14 10 7 36
San Benito (53): J. Belton 5 0 3-4 13, C. Sepulveda 1 1 3-9 8, T. Dukes 1 0 0-0 2, E. Elayda 0 3 0-0 9, T. Rickard 1 0 5-6 7, D. Gutierrez 1 0 0-0 2, R. Di Salvo 1 0 0-0 2, J. Tonascia 1 0 2-2 4, H. Miskin 2 0 0-0 4.
