The San Benito girls basketball team finished in third place in
the Oak Grove tournament after a 41-30 win over Oak Grove on
Saturday.
Neither San Benito nor Oak Grove was able to get much going
offensively in the first quarter, but the Balers erupted in the
fourth for 18 points.
The San Benito girls basketball team finished in third place in the Oak Grove tournament after a 41-30 win over Oak Grove on Saturday.
Neither San Benito nor Oak Grove was able to get much going offensively in the first quarter, but the Balers erupted in the fourth for 18 points.
“The girls are really starting to give a lot of effort, and the consistency will happen when they do that,” said Baler coach Tom Dean. “I am very proud of them so far for their sportsmanship and hard work.”
San Benito held its turnovers to 18 compared to the 28 in the 45-42 win over Palo Alto the day before.
The Balers shot 30 percent from the field and 50 percent from the line. The team hauled in 31 rebounds. Christina Osborne, Kristina Leal, Ashley Patton, Dani Andrewson, Jennifer Anaya all played well defensively, especially playing man-to-man.
Johni Kieswetter and Jaime Flores did a good job keeping their outside shooters off balance by applying pressure. Cortney Almaguer had a big day on the boards with nine – six of which were offensive, and Flores had five rebounds.
Trisha Lee started a fire storm in the fourth quarter when she scored six points in 10 seconds. She made a basket, stole the inbounds pass and made another then stripped a girl of the ball and scored another basket.
“The team fed off of that, and our pressure on the ball was very intense from then on,” Dean said.
Jaime Hall finished a very good tournament with 17 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots. She was named to the All-tournament team. Mallorie Wilson had eight points.
The game against Palo Alto was a see-saw battle throughout.
“Our game plan was to get them in foul trouble and slow the game down, and we did just that in the first half,” Dean said. “But they came out very intense in the third quarter, and we slipped into trying to playing their game style. And it hurt us. We turned the ball over a total of 26 times in the game. You don’t win games doing that.”
Palo Alto converted five layups on breakaways. Hall had six steals, ten rebounds and five points. Lee had 14 points, and Wilson had 12.
The Balers (7-2) have some days off to get ready for the Seaside Sweet 16 Tournament that starts Dec. 26.
San Benito will go against Mountain View, who is 5-4 on the season.
Some of the other top-quality teams in the tournament include Terra Nova, Sacred Heart Prep, Madera and St Francis.
“It will be another good challenge for us,” Dean said. “We only have seven more games before league starts, and our schedule will help us to get ready. We just need to play four quarters of good ball, and we haven’t done that yet.”
San Benito 10 6 7 18––41
Oak Grove 5 13 6 6––30
San Benito 9 15 5 13––42
Palo Alto 14 6 14 11––45
