Baler girls basketball team continues to make more in state
tournament
And then there was one.
The No. 2 ranked San Benito High girls’ basketball team made
history last Friday night at the San Jose State Events Center by
ousting the top-seeded Carlmont Scots 54-43 to capture the school’s
first-ever Central Coast Section basketball title.
Baler girls basketball team continues to make more in state tournament
And then there was one.
The No. 2 ranked San Benito High girls’ basketball team made history last Friday night at the San Jose State Events Center by ousting the top-seeded Carlmont Scots 54-43 to capture the school’s first-ever Central Coast Section basketball title.
“It just really shows how hard these girls worked,” Head Coach David Kaplansky said afterwards. “They worked real hard and bought into the system. They were literally replicating everything they were taught out there – offensively and defensively. It was like a piece of art. They truly understood how I wanted them to play the game.”
And so far the Lady Balers have been able to take Kaplansky’s lessons in tenacity and court-savvy play to the next level at the Northern California State tournament.
On Tuesday night at home, the Balers, which are seeded No. 4 in the state tournament, took another step in their historic journey by knocking off Sacramento’s C K McClatchy High School, the tournament’s No. 6 seed, by a 52-45 margin. This time the Balers relied on a new weapon to get things done. That weapon came in the form of 6-foot sophomore forward Victoria Aquilera, who scored 13 in the contest. The Balers leading team scorer this season, Vanessa Farias, had 18 and Bri Romero sank 11 more to give the Balers enough offensive balance throughout the lineup to pull off the 7-point victory in front of the packed-in hometown crowd.
The win allowed the Balers to advance in the tournament where they took on top-seeded Berkeley High (28-3) last night after press time in a road showdown.
If the Balers were able to pull off the upset they would be just two wins away from claiming the state title. Those two games would each take place at Sacramento’s ARCO Arena, the home of the Sacramento Kings. The first game would get under way tomorrow at 10 a.m. with the championship game being played the following Saturday, March 15, against the representative school from Southern California.
While the state title is still a ways off, the biggest thrill so far has been capturing the Section championship. In that game against the Scots, the Balers opened up an 11-8 point lead in front of some 300 fans in the crowd after the opening quarter and never trailed again in the contest. By halftime the Balers had built a 26-14 lead and never looked back – although things did get a little hairy in the closing minutes.
“I remember looking up at the clock at the 1:59 mark and we were up by four,” Kaplansky said. “I drew up two plays so that we wouldn’t use any time outs down the stretch, and the girls executed both plays perfectly.”
The first play called for getting the ball inside to Romero, a senior forward, who was to drive down the lane for a lay-up and either score and/or draw the foul. Romero made the shot and the Balers defense held to go up by six.
On the next mapped-out possession play hot-handed three-point threat Elena Fata, who had already nailed a pair of long-range shots in the final quarter, was to pull the trigger from behind the arc again. She also made the clutch shot, which put the game out of reach.
As the clock wound down Carlmont would foul as early and often as it could but the Balers responded by hitting their free throw shots. Fata alone was 4-for-4 in the closing minutes of the contest.
“They played like an experienced group. They did what I expected them to do,” Kaplansky said. “They executed well down the stretch. To be able to stop them at the end and make all of our free throws really said something about this team.”
Leading the way for the Balers was Farias, a junior guard, who scored 18. Fata scored 17 and Romero had nine.
