San Benito forces 24 turnovers, beat Westmont 50-24 Saturday in
the quarterfinals of the Dons Club Holiday Tournament in
Campbell
CAMPBELL
Having outscored their previous two opponents by a massive 134-19 margin, the San Benito girls basketball team may have delivered arguably their best, most complete performance on Saturday against Westmont at the Dons Club Holiday Tournament in Campbell.
And they only won by 26.
“The defensive effort today was [outstanding],” San Benito head coach David Kaplansky said. “The pressure, the rotation, I mean, that was the hardest we’ve played all season long, 1 through 13.”
Vanessa Farias led all scorers with 22 points – 14 in the first half – and the Lady ‘Balers downed Westmont 50-24 Saturday, a game in which San Benito (7-3) held the Warriors (7-3) to single digit point totals in the first, third and fourth quarters.
The comfortable victory, coupled with San Benito’s 64-9 win over Branham High in Friday’s opening round, pushes the Lady ‘Balers one step closer to their initial goal, which is playing in Wednesday’s championship at Del Mar High School.
Before they can play in that game, though, San Benito will have to battle Prospect in Tuesday’s semifinal round after the Panthers (7-2) defeated Mountain View 56-40 Saturday behind 20 points from senior center Jennifer Jasper.
“They have the best big man in the tournament,” Kaplansky said of the 6-foot-1 Jasper. “She’s a handful. But once again, with our experience in those shootouts, we played against some pretty good centers and that’s only gonna prepare us for Tuesday night.”
If the Lady ‘Balers showcase the same lockdown man-defense against Prospect like they did against Westmont on Saturday, though, they could very well ring in the New Year with a tournament championship.
San Benito didn’t unveil anything fancy or complicated on the defensive end Saturday against the Warriors, but they did run their “D” – a somewhat simple up-in-your-face, man-to-man, full-court press – to a “T.”
“All the experience and the tough competition is paying off,” Kaplansky said. “I thought the effort was the difference. The principles haven’t changed, but the effort was awesome today.”
Forcing 24 turnovers in the game, 14 in the first half alone, San Benito jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first quarter and held Westmont scoreless for the first four minutes of regulation.
Padding their lead, which grew to as many as 29 points in the fourth quarter, San Benito double-teamed Westmont in the corners and held the Warriors to 26 percent (9 of 35) shooting from the field.
The Warriors even had difficulty penetrating inside the 3-point line throughout the first quarter, and only made a pair of field goals as a result, both of which were last-ditch attempts as the shot clock expired.
After Westmont scored 10 points in the second quarter, though, San Benito held them to just 10 points for the entire second half.
“We were coming from behind, trying to encourage the trap down the sidelines,” Kaplansky added. “But our execution on the half-court offense was wonderful today. We set great screens and we recognized situations.
“It was our best and most complete game we’ve played all year long.”
Lady ‘Baler Victoria Aguilera supplied eight points behind 3 of 4 shooting from the field on Saturday, while both Vanessa Casalegno and Erin Glasspool turned in five points apiece.
San Benito, which shot nearly 40 percent (18 of 46) from the field, was 10 of 12 from the free throw line.
The Lady ‘Balers will square off against Prospect Tuesday at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to Wednesday’s championship against the victor of the Salinas-Evergreen Valley match-up.
Note:
San Benito committed 12 turnovers in the game … Westmont shot 3 of 5 from the free throw line … The Lady ‘Balers beat Branham 64-9 last Friday behind 17 points from Farias and 12 from Megan Halstead. San Benito shut Branham out in the first quarter 19-0, and held a comfortable 37-2 lead at halftime. The Lady ‘Balers had 10 different scorers in the game.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 13 15 10 12 50
WEST 4 10 5 5 24
San Benito (50) – Russell 1-3 0-0 2, Ademek 1-3 0-0 2, Aguilera 3-4 2-2 8, Halstead 0-3 4-4 4, Casalegno 2-6 1-2 5, Farias 8-20 3-4 22, Glasspool 2-5 0-0 5, N. Rianda 1-2 0-0 2.
Three-point goals: Farias 3, Glasspool 1.
