Victoria Aguilera’s mid-range bank shot in the fourth quarter
supplied the No. 5 Lady Balers with a 24-13 lead with five minutes
remaining. But the top-seeded North Salinas Vikings, anchored by
senior Alyssa Ayala, finished with an improbable 12-0 run and
swiped certain victory from San Benito’s grasp with a
come-from-behind 25-24 win in the Central Coast Section Division I
semifinals on Wednesday night in Santa Clara.
SANTA CLARA
Jackie Echaorre was left practically speechless.
Victoria Aguilera couldn’t stop going over certain situations that happened late in the game, situations that appeared to be minor details at the time.
Collectively, the San Benito Lady Balers, quiet and few dry eyes in the bunch, were left wondering what just happened.
Yes, sometimes losing is that hard.
“Definitely the hardest,” Aguilera said. “To go to the championship game, this is definitely the hardest loss.
“Turnovers killed us.”
Aguilera’s mid-range bank shot in the fourth quarter supplied the No. 5 Lady Balers with a 24-13 lead with five minutes remaining in regulation. But the top-seeded North Salinas Vikings, anchored by senior Alyssa Ayala, finished with an improbable 12-0 run and swiped certain victory from San Benito’s grasp with a come-from-behind 25-24 win in the Central Coast Section Division I semifinals on Wednesday night in Santa Clara — the Vikings spilling onto the floor in celebration as time expired.
“Ayala is their best 3-point shooter, and that’s who they went to when they needed buckets,” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said.
Ayala scored 10 of North High’s final 12 points in the game, finished with a game-high 14 points, and drained not only a 3-pointer with 36 seconds remaining to pull the Vikings to within one point, but deposited the go-ahead jumper 13 seconds later that pushed North Salinas ahead for good.
It was the Vikings’ first lead of the game, and despite coming with 23 ticks left in regulation, it was enough.
Just barely.
“We had this game,” Echaorre said, unable to say much of anything else.
San Benito was forced to foul late in the game, and after putting Taryn Winfield on the free-throw line with 7.2 seconds remaining, the Lady Balers had one last chance when Winfield missed the front end of her 1-and-1 opportunity.
But North High’s full-court press, as it did for much of the fourth quarter, slowed San Benito down the court and forced an errant pass in the closing seconds — the ball bouncing out of bounds as the final buzzer sounded.
“We had that game in the bag,” said Aguilera, who had a team-high seven points. “We just couldn’t handle the situation.”
The Lady Balers committed 27 turnovers in the game, 16 in the second half.
“I think our youth and inexperience showed in these kind of games,” said Kaplansky, whose Lady Balers lost to North High earlier this season after being outscored 9-2 in the closing minutes.
The Vikings (23-3), who knocked off San Benito three times this season, advance to Saturday’s Division I final against No. 10 Menlo-Atherton as a result — the Bears edging No. 3 Evergreen Valley 54-51 on Wednesday night at Santa Clara’s Mission College.
The CCS championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Santa Clara University.
A single bucket was all that separated the two-time defending champion Lady Balers (22-5) from advancing to the Division I final for a third year in a row, however, and leading by double digits late in the game only made Wednesday’s loss that more difficult.
“I just felt like the situation we really struggled with was finishing off quarters and halves,” Kaplansky said. “But as a group, their effort was tremendous.”
The noticeably bigger Vikings, who topped the Lady Balers 47-40 on Feb. 4 and 42-28 on Jan. 11, couldn’t crack San Benito’s game plan early on.
Behind a three-point play from Aguilera and a Mari Vallejo fast break lay-in, as well as an Erin Glasspool 3-pointer from the corner, San Benito jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first quarter.
“The first half we played great defense,” Aguilera said. “We held the No. 1 seed to three points in the first quarter. Offensively, we could have done better.”
Long offensive possessions by San Benito and six North Salinas turnovers in the opening period kept the Vikings to just a single field goal on six attempts — the Lady Balers’ pressure trap never allowing North High to find a rhythm.
“They executed the defensive game plan to a ‘T,'” said Kaplansky, whose Lady Balers forced 23 turnovers on North High. “I told them (afterward) how I proud I am and what a great team they are … probably the best defensive team I’ve ever coached.
“That’s what they’ve been doing all year long.”
While the first quarter provided San Benito a cushion it’d keep until late in the game, the second and third quarters were dominated by defense — the two teams exchanging turnovers almost back-and-forth, with 31 of the 50 combined takeaways in the game coming in the middle two periods.
Holding a lead as many as 12 at one point, San Benito’s advantage was never in question during the turnover-riddled game.
“We really took them out of everything,” Kaplansky said. “The effort, the rotation — we got them out of their spots.”
With neither team finding an edge in the third, the Lady Balers took a 22-13 lead to the final stanza, and made it a 24-13 game at the 5:30 mark on Aguilera’s bank shot.
“Instead of holding the ball and running the clock, it was turnovers,” Aguilera said, referring to San Benito’s game plan of clock management. “But we did play the best defense we’ve played all year.”
North High’s 2-2-1 defense in the second half wasn’t bad either. Not only did it force several turnovers on San Benito in the back court, but also allowed for quick shots offensively when the Lady Balers broke the press and were handed two-on-one and even three-on-one situations.
Held to just a single field goal in the fourth quarter, though, San Benito’s shots were simply not falling late in the game, while Ayala, who had just four points through the first three quarters, didn’t miss.
“The momentum definitely changed after she made that 3,” Aguilera said.
Mari Vallejo and Nicole Rianda each finished with four points, while Echaorre had three. Five players on North Salinas all finished with just two points, including Brionna Sullen, whose jumper in the paint was the lone field goal in the fourth quarter not pocketed by Ayala.
Said Aguilera silently after the game, her head held low, “… Just those situations.”
Notes:
San Benito shot 22 percent (8 of 37) from the field and 60 percent (6 of 10) from the free-throw line … North Salinas shot 30 percent (10 of 33) from the field and 40 percent (4 of 10) from the free-throw line … San Benito will graduate five players next year, including Vanessa Casalegno, Melisah Cortez, Emi Miskin, Cassie Pate and Victoria Aguilera … It is San Benito’s first CCS loss in three years — the team has an 8-1 record in that time span.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SB 10 8 4 2 24
NS 3 6 4 12 25
San Benito (24): V. Casalegno 0-8 1-2 1, V. Aguilera 2-8 3-4 7, M. Vallejo 2-5 0-0 4, E. Glasspool 1-6 0-0 3, N. Rianda 2-6 0-1 4, C. Salinas 0-0 2-3 2, J. Echaorre 1-4 0-0 3.
Three-point goals: E. Glasspool 1, J. Echaorre 1.
North Salinas (25): J. Rowland 0-3 2-4 2, T. Winfield 1-5 0-1 2, M. Dacpano 1-1 0-0 2, A. Ayala 6-10 1-1 14, B. Sullen 1-2 0-2 2, J. Ashen 1-6 0-0 2, S. Makanani 0-0 1-2 1.
Three-point goals: A. Ayala 1.
