A lack of offensive production by San Benito, coupled with North
High’s prowess on the offensive boards, led to a 48-25 Vikings
victory on Tuesday at Hollister’s Mattson Gym, in a game that saw
the Balers limited to just seven points in the second half and the
Vikings extend many of their possessions with second- and
third-chance opportunities.
HOLLISTER
Revenge wasn’t exactly sweet for the San Benito girls basketball team on Tuesday night.
It was downright sour.
Playing host to North Salinas for the first time since last season’s Central Coast Section semifinal game — an improbable come-from-behind 25-24 victory for the Vikings — the Balers were looking to not only avenge the end result of their final game of the 2009-10 season, but also kickoff the 2010-11 campaign on the right note.
But a lack of offensive production by San Benito, coupled with North High’s prowess on the offensive boards, led to a 48-25 Vikings victory on Tuesday at Hollister’s Mattson Gym, in a game that saw the Balers limited to just seven points in the second half and the Vikings extend many of their possessions with second- and third-chance opportunities.
The loss drops the Balers to 8-5 on the season.
“They’re good. They’re a good team, and they came out and played hard tonight,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “They played their best game of the year tonight, and that’s what I was expecting our kids to do.”
A defensive adjustment by the Vikings following the first quarter of play kept San Benito to single-digit scoring through the second, third and fourth quarters.
With Erin Glasspool and Cyrena Salinas cutting to the hoop for driving lay-ups out of North High’s man defense in the initial minutes of regulation, the Vikings instead clogged the paint for the remainder of the contest and often double- and sometimes triple-teamed San Benito’s post players.
The end result limited the Balers’ production inside (Viking Julia Ashen had six blocks in the game) and forced them to take outside shots. And on Tuesday night, with an 8 of 42 performance from the field, the shots were simply not dropping.
“We had some key lay-ups early on when they were manning us. But they started double-teaming our bigs and it kind of took us out of our low-post game,” said Kaplansky, whose team led 11-10 at the end of the first quarter. “We still had some good looks in the high-low game, but they just didn’t go in.”
As the defensive pressure on San Benito’s guards increased, as well as the defensive swarming in the paint, the Balers began to struggle offensively as the game wore on.
Glasspool dropped a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter to knot the game at 16-all, but North High finished the half on a 7-2 run to take a 23-18 edge at the break and a lead it never relinquished.
Frustration appeared to set in for San Benito in the second half. Limited to just two field goals through the third and fourth quarters, the Balers’ always-on defense was often forcing North High to take low-percentage shots at the tail end of the 30-second shot clock.
But those low-percentage shots were either going in, like Meeshell Campbell’s 3-pointer that was shot from roughly five feet behind the line, or they were falling short, only to be rebounded by a fellow Viking.
Campbell finished with a game-high 12 points.
Kaplansky said rebounding has been an issue all season. Although the Vikings only took seven more shots than San Benito — much of the reason being the Balers forced five more turnovers — North High’s presence on the glass extended many of its offensive possessions, and usually for the better.
“You can’t run 30 seconds of defense and give up multiple rebounds every game,” the head coach added. “That’s been hurting us this year, not having kids swarm to that type of situation.
“We played good defense and we held them to tough shots, but we’re struggling on capitalizing. It takes five players to rebound.”
Meanwhile, on the opposite end, Nicole Rianda’s basket at the 6:15 mark of the third quarter was San Benito’s last field goal until the 1:25 mark of the fourth quarter.
Rianda finished with a team-high 10 points.
San Benito will look to snap its current two-game skid on Thursday when it will travel to Gilroy to take on the Mustangs. Tip-off is 7 p.m.
Notes:
San Benito shot 19 percent (8 of 42) from the field, 58 percent (7 of 12) from the line, and committed 10 turnovers … North Salinas shot 45 percent (22 of 49) from the field, 16 percent (1 of 6) from the line, and committed 15 turnovers … This is the Vikings’ fifth straight win over the Balers, dating back to January 2009.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
NS 10 13 13 12 48
SB 11 7 5 2 25
North Salinas (48): T. Osborne 4-9 1-2 9, M. Dacpano 0-2 0-0 0, M. Campbell 5-14 0-0 12, J. Ashen 3-7 0-2 6, A. Woo 5-11 0-0 11, D. Tennant 3-3 0-0 6, M. Nelson 0-1 0-2 0, F. Ramos 2-2 0-0 4.
Three-point goals: M. Campbell 2, A. Woo 1.
San Benito (25): J. Echaorre 0-3 0-0 0, T. Fabing 1-3 0-0 2, E. Glasspool 2-7 0-0 5, T. Haynish 0-0 0-2 0, S. Puentes 0-2 0-0 0, N. Rianda 4-11 2-2 10, K. Robledo 0-6 1-2 1, C. Salinas 1-8 4-6 7, M. Vallejo 0-2 0-0 0.
Three-point goals: E. Glasspool 1, C. Salinas 1.
