The San Benito High boys basketball team was tied with Mission
of San Francisco at 51-all with less than a minute remaining on
Friday night, but the Bears deposited three points late and held
off the Balers in the end en route to a 54-51 victory in the
consolation championship at the Independence Fukishima Invitational
in San Jose.
SAN JOSE
The San Benito High boys basketball team was tied with Mission of San Francisco at 51-all with less than a minute remaining on Friday night, but the Bears deposited three points late and held off the Balers in the end en route to a 54-51 victory in the consolation championship at the Independence Fukishima Invitational in San Jose.
“We had our chances, but we couldn’t convert,” San Benito head coach Tracy Carpenter said.
San Benito, which finished in fourth place as a result, is now 3-3 overall.
In the double bonus late in the game, the Balers fouled Mission and sent them to the free throw line with 25 seconds to go after struggling to pull down a defensive rebound.
Mission made the first free throw to go up 52-51 and missed the second. But the Bears pulled down the offensive rebound on the missed basket and scored on a put-back to go up by three points.
The Balers took two shots on their following possession, but neither dropped.
“They’re a really good team and really athletic,” Carpenter said. “It was a tough loss.”
Senior forward Kyle Vallejo scored a team-high 12 points for the Balers, while Eric Elayda and Tyler Rickard each added 10 points apiece.
Rickard was also named to the all-tournament team.
“He defended, he rebounded and played a really good, all-around game,” Carpenter said of Rickard.
The Balers, meanwhile, trailed for much of the contest. Mission led 16-13 after one quarter, 28-24 at halftime, and even 42-33 heading into the fourth quarter. San Benito outscored Mission 18-12 in the final period.
“In the long run it’s good for us because we’re playing good teams,” Carpenter said. “It helps show what you need to work on.”
And Carpenter highlighted free throw percentage and turnovers as two areas in need of improvement. The Balers were just 8 of 22 from the charity stripe against Mission and committed 19 turnovers.
“We need to improve and we need to be more efficient against the press,” Carpenter said. “The boys played really hard and were competitive, but we need to get better in so many areas.”
San Benito will return to action next Saturday when it will visit Watsonville at 7 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 13 11 9 18 51
MISS 16 12 14 12 54
San Benito (51) — J. Belton 3 0 1-7 7, K. Vallejo 4 0 4-8 12, T. Rickard 3 1 1-3 10, C. Sepulveda 3 0 0-0 6, E. Elayda 2 2 0-0 10, D. Wingo 2 0 2-4 4, B. Mendoza 1 0 0-0 2.
