San Benito defeats Alisal 49-38 on Senior Night
Hollister
The San Benito girls basketball team played Alisal in the friendly confines of Mattson Gym Thursday night, and oh, how good life is.
San Benito was not competing in the raucous environment at Alisal in Salinas; the Lady ‘Balers were celebrating Bri Romero (4 points), Katie O’Brien (4), Brittany Soza (1), Elena Fata (4) and Shireen Zamani (2) on Senior Night; and the team was playing its first game since clinching the Tri-County Athletic League title.
Home sweet home, indeed.
San Benito even kept their undefeated record intact by beating the visiting Trojans 49-38.
“It was a good night – Senior Night,” coach David Kaplansky said. “The seniors started, finished, and played a lot of minutes.”
Despite Alisal outscoring San Benito 14-5 in the final stanza, the home team still managed to win by 11 points.
Vanessa Farias had 17 points behind three 3-pointers, while post players Lauren Ademek and Megan Halstead added eight and seven points, respectively.
“Farias shot the ball real well … opening up the post players.” Kaplansky said. “It seems like as a team, we’re finding the open person.”
San Benito outscored Alisal 18-6 in the second period behind an 8-0 run.
Said the coach, “It seemed like after that point we were able to get a lot of confidence and get a good cushion.”
That “cushion” resulted in San Benito’s 44-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter, a 20-point margin that allowed the Lady ‘Balers to cruise to the victory.
On Tuesday, San Benito defeated Everett Alvarez 62-22. It was North Salinas’ 53-42 loss to Gilroy, however, that provided the second-place Vikings with their third loss of the season.
With only two games remaining at that point, San Benito (20-4, 11-0 TCAL) clinched the Tri-County Athletic League.
It is the team’s first league championship since the 2000-01 season, when San Benito won the Monterey Bay Athletic League. It is also San Benito’s first TCAL title since the newly-formed league began in 2002.
The Lady ‘Balers will play their final regular season game next Thursday at North Salinas. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
Team 1 2 3 4 F
SB 15 18 11 5 49
ALI 8 6 10 14 38
SB (49) – O’Brien 2 0 0 4, Fata 1 0 2 4, Farias 4 3 0 17, Zamani 1 0 0 2, Russell 1 0 0 2, Soza 0 0 1 1, Halstead 3 0 1 7, Ademek 4 0 0 8, Romero 2 0 0 4.
JV Note:
The San Benito junior varsity team took a slim seven-point lead to the fourth quarter Thursday against Alisal, and opened up a 20-point Trojan deficit when it was all said and done.
The Lady ‘Balers outscored Alisal 13-0 in the final period, and went on to win 44-24.
“We had a very good team effort,” coach Karen Fortino said. “We started a little bit slow, but we stayed with it and really kind of opened it up in the second half with double-digit scoring in the third and fourth quarters.”
San Benito outscored the Trojans in the second half 27-8.
Danielle Acosta had 11 points to lead the Lady ‘Balers, while Arielle Rianda added eight and Kim Warner had six.
San Benito is now 7-4 in the Tri-County Athletic League.
The Lady ‘Balers will play in their final game of the season next Thursday at North Salinas. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
Team 1 2 3 4 F
SB 10 7 14 13 44
ALI 6 10 8 0 24
