Lady ‘Balers score big TCAL win, defeat North Salinas 55-44
HOLLISTER
A statement was made on Monday night, and the Tri-County Athletic League heard it.
Vanessa Farias scored 23 points, Megan Halstead added 14 and the San Benito Lady ‘Balers dropped the defensive hammer and continued their hot play with a triumphant 55-44 victory over North Salinas Monday night at Hollister’s Mattson Gym.
It is San Benito’s eighth straight win, and as far as the TCAL goes, their biggest victory of the year.
The Vikings (2-1 TCAL), having returned approximately 11 players from last year’s 19-8 team that actually defeated the Lady ‘Balers twice in three contests, are considered San Benito’s biggest roadblock on the path toward the TCAL title.
And despite being only the second league game for the Lady ‘Balers – San Benito is 2-0 – Monday’s win is sure to go a long way.
“It’s a big win, but we still have 10 obstacles in front of us for that TCAL crown,” said Farias, whose 23 points included a 10 of 13 showing at the free-throw line. “I’m glad we got it over, because it was one of the bigger obstacles. But we still have 10 more to go.”
In what turned out to be a back-and-forth slugfest early on, with 10 lead changes through just a quarter and a half of play, the Lady ‘Balers grabbed hold of a 26-25 edge with 35 seconds remaining in the second quarter after Jennifer Guerrero sunk a pair of free throws.
From there, San Benito never looked back.
“Early on, I thought we were kind of taking a couple of steps backward,” said San Benito head coach David Kaplansky, who noted North Salinas’ triangle-and-two defense that forced the Lady ‘Balers to shoot from the outside.
“That’s what they wanted us to do,” Kaplansky added. “That triangle-and-two really caused us problems. But once they adapted to it and understood their options out of it, it really helped us out.”
San Benito started slightly cold, and were without a bucket for the first two and a half minutes of regulation. But the team’s defense – San Benito forced 19 turnovers in the game – as well as its scoring distribution – San Benito had five different scorers in the first quarter – kept them afloat, despite the adjustments early on.
“They got us out of what we like to do,” Kaplansky said. “There was a lot of things that opened up once we started running our offense.
“We hadn’t seen that look before, and once we slipped [Victoria Aguilera] that high post and get that shot, I think that really opened up the game a little bit.”
Aguilera had eight points in the contest, but her 3-pointer early in the game opened up the floor for San Benito and kept the Vikings honest.
North Salinas was led by Bina Abbott, who pocketed 13 points in the loss, eight in the first quarter alone. Edthel Lugo, who averages just over 11 points a game for North Salinas, scored 10 points Monday but was limited to 2 of 14 shooting from the field.
Both Abbott and Lugo fouled out in the fourth quarter.
“They’re a very good team,” said Halstead, who banged with North Salinas’ big bodies in the paint all night. “They’re very strong inside and they’re very good posts.”
The highly anticipated match-up between the rival schools was certainly punctuated by the intense, physical play both teams exhibit. And coming out at the start, San Benito may have fed off the high-energy crowd.
“We were running – go, go, go,” Farias said. “We didn’t calm down, stop, and set up our stuff. We didn’t start setting up our stuff until the fourth quarter – that’s when we started getting things going.
“If we played the way we did in the fourth quarter from the beginning, this game would have been different than what the outcome was today.”
After a third quarter that saw both teams go ice cold from the field, including a four and a half minute stretch to end the period where neither team pocketed a point, San Benito opened the final stanza with an eight-point lead and a patient, time-consuming offense.
Slowing the pace considerably, the Lady ‘Balers stayed ahead until the end behind 23 of 36 shooting from the free-throw line, and 11 of 15 in the final period.
“But the way we finished was what I was most proud of,” Kaplansky said. “I thought that fourth quarter really showed our true character.
“Our kids kept attacking and eventually we were able to play our game.”
The Lady ‘Balers (12-3 overall) will continue TCAL play on Friday at Gilroy. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
Notes:
San Benito shot 14 of 51 (27 percent) from the field Monday … North Salinas was 16 of 52 (31 percent), 12 of 25 from the line … The Vikings forced 10 turnovers … North Salinas head coach Darren Jackson was given a technical at the end of the first half after Vanessa Farias scored on a buzzer-beating lay-up that was believed to have fallen after the horn sounded. Farias made 1 of 2 free throws as a result of the technical.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
NS 13 13 7 11 44
SB 15 18 8 14 55
North Salinas (44) – B. Abbott 6-12, 1-6 13, J. Ashen 1-1 1-2 3, A. Ayala 4-13 0-0 8, E. Lugo 2-14 6-8 10, J. Rowland 3-6 2-3 8, B. Sullen 0-3 2-6 2.
Three-point goals: None.
San Benito (55) – K. Russell 1-4 0-0 2, V. Aguilera 3-14 1-2 8, M. Halstead 4-9 6-13 14, V. Casalegno 0-2 1-2 1, V. Farias 5-15 10-13 23, E. Glasspool 0-4 3-4 3, J. Guerrero 1-1 2-2 4.
Three-point goals: Aguilera 1, Farias 3.
JV Note:
Michelle Fortino scored 11 points, Cyrena Salinas added 10 and the San Benito junior varsity team outlasted visiting North Salinas Monday 49-39 at Hollister’s Mattson Gym.
After allowing 15 points in the first quarter, San Benito held the Vikings to just eight points apiece for the remaining three quarters en route to their 12th victory of the season.
“North Salinas probably hung with us tighter than anyone else has all year and forced us to go into our playbook a little bit,” San Benito head coach Karen Fortino said. “We’re used to running a tough man-to-man defense and they kind of beat us at that, so we switched to a 2-3 zone.
“But we played a good ball game all the way around.”
Kim Warner had eight points for the Lady ‘Balers, which improve to 2-0 in the Tri-County Athletic League and 12-1 overall.
San Benito will visit Gilroy on Friday. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
NS 15 8 8 8 39
SB 13 12 11 13 49
