After suffering through a disappointing second stanza, San
Benito managed to finally pull away from Alisal in the final period
on Tuesday when it outscored the Trojans by a 14-5 margin and
posted its 19th win of the season in the process with a 44-29
victory.
HOLLISTER
Although they sit in third and fourth place in the Tri-County Athletic League, respectively, San Benito and Alisal are at very different points in the regular season — almost opposite ends.
Whereas the Lady Balers are all but guaranteed a spot in next week’s Division I playoffs, the visiting Trojans needed a win on Tuesday night at Hollister’s Mattson Gym to remain eligible.
And the sense of urgency in Alisal was obvious.
“But we need to have that sense of urgency,” San Benito’s Victoria Aguilera said after the Lady Balers struggled to put away the Trojans early on Tuesday night. “If we want to do well in the playoffs, our enthusiasm needs to be up.”
After suffering through a disappointing second stanza, San Benito managed to finally pull away from Alisal in the final period on Tuesday when it outscored the Trojans by a 14-5 margin and posted its 19th win of the season in the process with a 44-29 victory.
It was a final score that did not necessarily reflect the overall game, however.
“They did a good job hounding my kids,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said of Alisal’s physical brand of basketball, which was not unlike San Benito’s style of play.
“We had a really bad second quarter,” the head coach added.
In a game that featured both extremes from San Benito — from all to nothing at all — the momentum gained by Alisal in the second nearly carried through the rest of the game.
In uncharacteristic fashion, San Benito’s 11-2 lead after the first quarter evaporated into a 17-16 deficit by halftime after the Lady Balers shot just 1 of 13 from the field and were outscored 15-5 in the second period.
“Our offense wasn’t there in the second quarter,” said Aguilera, who finished with a game-high 17 points. “And our defense could have been better. It wasn’t tenacious.”
While Alisal’s press slowed down the Balers’ offense, its frequent second-chance opportunities under the boards took San Benito out of a transition game early on — the Trojans had 16 more shots on offense in the game.
Furthermore, Alisal was making the extra pass on offense and scoring easy baskets underneath.
“We were just getting beat,” Kaplansky said. “We were one person short in our rotation, it seemed like.”
The Trojans made it more of a challenge in the full court, forcing eight second-quarter turnovers. Alisal opened the second quarter on an 8-1 run, and closed it on a 7-0 run when Juanita Valenzuela and Dari Salvador exchanged baskets until the break.
Gaby Pantoja led Alisal (5-6 TCAL, 9-13) with 10 points.
But while San Benito displayed one extreme in the second quarter, it displayed the opposite in the second half. Just as quickly as Alisal garnered a slim halftime lead, San Benito swiped it away early in the third quarter behind plenty of long-range shooting from both Jackie Echaorre and Erin Glasspool.
Echaorre finished with 10 points off the bench, while Glasspool had nine, all of which came from behind the arc.
“And they didn’t really come out of our half-court offense,” Kaplansky said of the six San Benito treys. “They came out of our transition offense.”
With the two teams tied at 20-all early in the third quarter, Echaorre nailed one of her three 3-pointers and San Benito closed out the period on an 8-2 run and never looked back.
Both Echaorre and Glasspool sunk treys to open the fourth quarter as well, and pushed the Lady Balers out to a 36-24 lead as a result.
“We were able to find our spots from the perimeter in transition, and that really opened up the game,” Kaplansky said.
After shooting just 5 of 25 from the field in the first half, San Benito bounced back to shoot 10 of 17 in the third and fourth quarters. Aguilera got in on the action as well, pocketing 13 of her 17 points in the second half.
“But our defense needs to step it up,” Aguilera said. “Our defense hasn’t been the same.”
The Lady Balers (8-3 TCAL, 19-4) will wrap up the regular season on Thursday when they will visit Salinas. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
Notes:
San Benito was 36 percent (15 of 42) from the field and 50 percent (8 of 16) from the free-throw line … Alisal was 21 percent (12 of 58) from the field and 50 percent (4 of 8) from the line … The Lady Balers committed 26 turnovers to the Trojans’ 23 … San Benito defeated Alisal 63-37 in Salinas on Jan. 21.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
ALIS 2 15 7 5 29
SANB 11 5 14 14 44
Alisal (29): G. Urueta 2-7 0-0 4, B. Salvador 1-3 0-0 2, J. Valenzuela 1-1 0-0 2, D. Salvador 3-10 0-0 7, G. Pantoja 3-16 4-6 10, E. Latu 2-10 0-0 4.
Three-point goals: D. Salvador 1.
San Benito (44): V. Casalegno 1-4 2-2 4, V. Aguilera 6-16 5-9 17, C. Pate 1-2 0-0 2, E. Glasspool 3-5 0-0 9, E. Miskin 1-2 0-0 2, J. Echaorre 3-4 1-2 10.
Three-point goals: E. Glasspool 3, J. Echaorre 3.
JV Note:
Behind 13 points from Tawne Haynish, the San Benito Lady Balers defeated visiting Alisal 38-12 on Tuesday night at Hollister’s Mattson Gym.
The Lady Balers held the Trojans to single-digit point totals in each quarter, leading 15-4 at halftime. San Benito outscored Alisal 23-8 in the second half.
“I was very happy with the second half,” San Benito head coach Karen Fortino said. “We came out very strong. It was a bit of a back-and-forth game and then we decided to turn on the switch.”
Nickole Gutierrez scored eight points for San Benito, while teammate Taylor Fabing had six.
“The girls, I kind of challenged them a little bit tonight to come out with an in-your-face defense,” Fortino said. “They did a very good job with execution and they communicated very well … another very good team performance, which I’m happy with.”
San Benito will visit Salinas on Thursday for its season finale at 5:30 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
ALIS 2 2 5 3 12
SANB 6 9 13 10 38
