Opening the third quarter on an 8-0 run, the Lady Balers tied
the game at 17-all and kept the tempo up en route to a 43-31
victory over North Monterey County Tuesday night in
Castroville.
CASTROVILLE
Trailing 17-9 at halftime against host North Monterey County, San Benito head coach David Kaplansky challenged his team in the locker room.
“Our identity was going to come out,” Kaplansky said of the third and fourth quarters. “And I think they came out great in the second half.”
Opening the third quarter on an 8-0 run, the Lady Balers tied the game at 17-all and kept the tempo up en route to a 43-31 victory over North County Tuesday night in Castroville.
Victoria Aguilera scored 13 points to lead San Benito, which improves to 2-0 on the early season.
“It was a good learning experience, for our kids to play from behind on the road,” Kaplansky said.
San Benito fell behind after a rough first half. The Condors held a narrow 8-7 lead after one quarter, but outscored the Lady Balers 9-2 in the second to take an eight-point lead to the break.
“We got off to a very bad start,” Kaplansky said.
The head coach said the team’s spacing wasn’t very good early on and the passing angles weren’t very good, leading to many deflected entry passes to San Benito’s post players.
“And our shot selection was good, but our shots weren’t falling,” Kaplansky added.
But a rejuvenated team came out in the second half. Down eight points at the beginning of the third quarter, San Benito’s Erin Glasspool hit consecutive 3-pointers and Aguilera converted a transition lay-up to knot the game at 17-all, less than a minute into the second half.
“Once the game got fast, that’s when we started to find a rhythm,” Kaplansky said. “I think the kids responded well and created an identity for themselves.”
San Benito and North County finished the third quarter tied at 24. But in the fourth, the Lady Balers took a 19-7 advantage to earn the victory.
Glasspool finished with 12 points behind three 3-pointers, while North County’s Savannah Skelton had a team-high 12.
San Benito will open the Watsonville Wildcatz Invitational on Thursday against Monte Vista Christian. Tip-off is 5 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SBN 7 2 15 19 43
NMC 8 9 7 7 31
San Benito (43) — C. Salinas 0 2 0-0 6, E. Glasspool 1 3 1-2 12, M. Cortez 1 0 0-0 2, V. Casalegno 2 0 1-1 5, M. Fortino 1 1 0-0 5, V. Aguilera 5 0 3-4 13.
JV Note:
Victoria Bustamante and Megan Sabbitini each scored 10 points apiece to lead the San Benito junior varsity girls basketball team past North Monterey County by a convincing 48-8 margin on Tuesday night in Castroville.
The victory improves the Lady Balers to 2-0 overall.
“We came out pretty strong,” said San Benito head coach Karen Fortino, whose squad controlled a 25-2 lead at halftime.
“We had to pull out of our man-defense, and the girls rotated very well into the zone, which I was happy with.”
San Benito forced 25 steals on the Condors and shot 66 percent from the field.
Lady Baler Taylor Fabing contributed eight points.
San Benito will return to the court on Thursday when they will play Soquel in the Santa Cruz JV Invitational.
