Down by one point against Fremont of Sunnyvale with 3.4 seconds
remaining on Tuesday night, San Benito’s Eric Elayda nailed a
baseline jumper, was fouled in the process, and drained the ensuing
free throw to put the Balers ahead for good by a 48-46 margin at
the Independence Fukishima Invitational in San Jose.
SAN JOSE
Down by one point with 3.4 seconds remaining against Fremont of Sunnyvale on Tuesday night, San Benito’s Eric Elayda nailed a baseline jumper, was fouled in the process, and drained the ensuing free throw to lift the Balers past Fremont 48-46 at the Independence Fukishima Invitational in San Jose.
The last-second heroics by Elayda, who had six points in the contest, improves San Benito to 3-1 on the year.
“He did a great job to get open,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said. “Cooper Sepulveda passed it to him and … he caught the ball really quickly, turned and shot.
“It was a tough shot. It was baseline, but slightly behind the backboard. It was a really tough shot.”
Elayda’s 15-footer was the culmination of a wild final minute of play, however.
The Balers trailed Fremont 46-45 with 38 seconds remaining, with Fremont having possession of the ball. But with San Benito pressuring the Firebirds on defense, a Fremont player stepped out of bounds on the baseline and turned the ball over to the Balers with 19 seconds remaining.
On its next possession, San Benito took the game-winning shot but missed. However, the ball bounced out of bounds on Fremont, giving the Balers, and Elayda, one more chance.
“It was huge,” Carpenter said. “It was the biggest (game) of the season, because they were the best team we’ve played.”
And the win could very well set up a game against an even bigger opponent. The Balers advance to the next round of the Fukishima Invitational on Thursday, where they will play the winner between Cupertino and Bellarmine, the defending Division I champions.
Despite its come-from-behind performance on Tuesday night, though, San Benito came out strong in the first half as well, leading 17-10 after one quarter and 33-20 at halftime.
“We were prepared and played really well in the first half,” Carpenter said. “We were up 13 at the half and played 12 different players.”
The Balers even led 41-33 through three quarters. But a couple of Fremont players “caught on fire,” Carpenter said, with the Firebirds’ 6-foot-4, 225-pound center leading the way from the behind the arc.
“We got a little conservative in the second half and they took the lead,” the head coach said.
San Benito had a 10-point cushion with four minutes to play when Fremont mounted its comeback, setting up the wild final minute of play that ended in the Balers’ favor.
Cooper Sepulveda led San Benito with 10 points, while Evan Olbring had nine and Jordan Belton added eight.
San Benito will play either Cupertino or Bellarmine on Thursday in the Fukishima Invitational at Independence High in San Jose. Tip-off is 6 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 17 16 8 7 48
FRMT 10 10 13 13 46
San Benito (48) — J. Belton 3 0 2-3 8, K. Vallejo 2 0 1-2 5, T. Rickard 1 0 0-0 2, C. Sepulveda 3 1 1-2 10, E. Elayda 2 0 2-3 6, D. Wingo 3 0 0-1 6, E. Olbring 3 1 0-0 9, B. Mendoza 1 0 0-0 2.
