Knotted at 8-all with visiting Seaside early on, the Lady Balers
upped the tempo, the pressure, and never looked back. Closing out
the opening period on an 18-1 run at Hollister’s Mattson Gym, San
Benito routed the Spartans 58-16 in non-conference action Tuesday,
and seemingly picked up where it left off during last season’s
title run.
HOLLISTER
It took the San Benito Lady Balers all of four minutes to find their “sea legs.”
The two-time Central Coast Section Division I champions opened their 2009 campaign on Tuesday night, and although first-game jitters may have been apparent at the opening tip-off, they quickly subsided midway through the first quarter — just 240 seconds into the season, to be exact.
“Everyone had the first-game jitters,” San Benito post player Victoria Aguilera said, “but everyone got through them.”
Knotted at 8-all with visiting Seaside early on, the Lady Balers upped the tempo, the pressure, and never looked back. Closing out the opening period on an 18-1 run at Hollister’s Mattson Gym, San Benito routed the Spartans 58-16 in non-conference action Tuesday, and seemingly picked up where it left off during last season’s title run.
“It’s your first game, you know, and I think we were real hesitant on team defense the first three minutes,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “We weren’t moving our feet real well — kind of like sea legs, in my opinion.
“But once the rhythm of the game started, I felt like our kids got real confident and that’s when we started to play better team defense.”
Forcing nine turnovers in the first quarter, San Benito quickly turned an 8-8 ball game into a 22-8 romp, and in one minute and 37 seconds, no less.
“Tempo change, definitely,” said Aguilera, who led all scorers with 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting Tuesday. “Overall, we had good defense, and offensively, we just brought the tempo up, definitely.”
Aguilera scored 10 of her 14 points in the first quarter — San Benito led 26-9 after eight minutes of play — and anchored an inside-outside strategy that the Spartans had little chance of defending.
“It worked out great,” Aguilera said. “The guards hit their shots and the posts hit their lay-ups.”
Along with post player Nicole Rianda, who deposited eight points on 3 of 5 shooting, the Lady Balers had several guards on the outside perimeter, including Erin Glasspool, Jackie Echaorre, Cyrena Salinas and Mari Vallejo, who combined for five of the team’s six 3-pointers as well as 27 points.
“Our game plan was to go in first. We felt like we had an advantage in the middle with Victoria (Aguilera),” Kaplansky said. “We wanted to pound the ball in early, then open up the shooting as the game went on. And the girls stuck with the plan really well.”
San Benito, which shot 12 of 17 as a team in the first quarter, led 41-12 at halftime.
The Spartans, winners of four straight Monterey Bay League titles and six in the last seven years, couldn’t muster much offense while under San Benito’s constant pressure. The Lady Balers forced 29 turnovers in the game, and kept Seaside scoreless during one stretch in the first and second quarters that lasted nearly eight minutes.
“It was all about cutting off their penetration early in the game,” Kaplansky said. “That’s where they were getting their quick buckets from.
“But the kids have been practicing hard and they have high expectations. It’s a process of trying to get better each and every day.”
San Benito (1-0) will return to action next Tuesday when they will visit North Monterey County (1-0) in Castroville. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
Notes:
San Benito shot 25 of 55 from the field, 2 of 2 from the line … Seaside shot 6 of 37 from the field and 4 of 8 from the line … The Lady Balers committed 10 turnovers … The Spartans were held to just a single field goal in each of the second, third and fourth quarters … Last year, San Benito defeated Seaside 44-27 in the season opener.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SEAS 9 3 2 2 16
SANB 26 15 15 2 58
San Benito (58) — V. Casalegno 1-3 0-0 2, V. Aguilera 7-10 0-0 14, M. Vallejo 3-7 0-0 6, C. Pate 1-3 0-0 2, E. Glasspool 3-6 0-0 9, C. Salinas 3-6 0-0 7, J. Echaorre 2-2 0-0 5, N. Rianda 3-5 2-2 8, M. Cortez 1-4 0-0 2, M. Fortino 1-6 0-0 3.
Three-point goals — E. Glasspool 3, C. Salinas 1, J. Echaorre 1, M. Fortino 1.
JV Note:
The San Benito girls junior varsity team defeated Seaside 56-14 during its season opener Tuesday night at Hollister’s Mattson Gym.
The Lady Balers (1-0) were led by Olivia Diaz, Carrie Gutierrez and Kayla Ortiz, each of whom scored 10 points apiece.
“A very good team effort,” San Benito junior varsity head coach Karen Fortino said. “We have a few freshman on the team this year, but the girls really came together and played a good game.
“A good start to the season.”
San Benito will visit North Monterey County on Tuesday in Castroville. Tip-off is 5:30 p.m.
