After watching a 19 point lead disappear in a flash, the San Benito boys basketball team didn’t have to look far for inspiration.
Twice during the 25-game season the Balers blew a large lead and lost by a combined three points. Those early-season losses to Salinas and Mills were nearly two months ago, but were in the heads of the No. 3 seeded Balers in Saturday’s quarterfinal game of the Central Coast Section playoffs against Milpitas.
“When they started getting close, we just remembered back to Mills and back to Salinas and how we lost at the end,” senior Isaiah Acfalle said. “We didn’t want our season to end. We wanted to use all the will power we had to win this game.”
And those losses did just that, he said.
“They are very important,” he said. “The experience we got in those games allowed us to man up and take care of business this time. It was very good. It was great to learn from those.”
Unlike those early-season losses, the Balers responded – thanks in large part to Jordan Belton’s 33 points – to blowing a large lead to beat Milpitas 77-70 and advance to the CCS semifinals.
In the win, the offense outshone the defense for the first time this year, as the Balers scored a season-high 77 points and had three players contribute at least 19 points. San Benito shot even better from long range, hitting 11 3-pointers.
“If you make shots you win games. We made shots,” head coach David Kaplansky said. “Our defense has been there all year but against Milpitas and in the playoffs you have to score points. These teams are at this point of the year because they can score. It was nice to see us score. That was the best offensive game we’ve had all year.”
He continued: “It was fantastic how we shot the ball. When the 3-point shot was going in early, you could really see the momentum in our guys.”
Early, the Balers couldn’t miss.
Led by Acfalle, who scored 19 points and hit four 3-pointers, San Benito raced out to a 20-13 first-quarter lead. Acfalle served as the Balers’ main offensive threat early, striking for seven first-quarter points. Sophomore Hyram Miskin, who scored 19 points, hit two of his five 3-pointers on the day in the first quarter, as San Benito jumped out to a large lead with an early 10-0 run.
San Benito went on another long run in the second quarter, as the Balers scored 13 straight points to build at 30-13 lead.
On his way to a season-high 33 points, Belton scored 14 first-half points to pace the Balers’ scoring.
To shout down the tall Milpitas squad, San Benito used a strong, full-court zone defense to clog the passing lanes of the Trojans. In the first half, San Benito forced eight Trojan turnovers, as Baler sharpshooting caused Milpitas to panic on offense.
“You have to be composed and know the angles to make those passes,” Milpitas head coach Champ Wrencher said. “That’s been our demon all year. We will have a flurry late in the game, but we’ll have a breakdown. I thought we would get better but that’s sort of the way the season has been going for us.”
Overall, San Benito forced 11 turnovers on the night, as Milpitas struggled to get the ball down the court. But despite Milpitas’ struggles and a 16-point San Benito halftime lead, the game was far from over.
Milpitas opened the second half with a 9-3 run to pull to within 10 points. Led by Derek Fox, who scored 28 points to lead the Trojans, Milpitas slowly started to chip away at the San Benito lead. Unlike the first half, Milipitas, which held a height advantage over San Benito, started to take shots from the perimeter instead of driving to the basket.
“I didn’t like what we were doing so I stuck with the zone for the rest of the game because we felt like they were starting to shoot from the outside,” Kaplansky said. “Their strength was inside so we thought they were going away from their strength when they started hiking up their threes. So they were kind of gambling on the perimeter but at that point in the game, they were starting to score pretty easy.”
To combat the highly efficient Milpitas offense, the defense started to get aggressive, said Belton, who forced a pair of game-saving turnovers in the game’s final moments.
“Coach has been stressing all week, belly up and get in someone’s grill,” Belton said. “And that’s what we did. We never gave up.”
Giving up could have been easy for the Balers, who watched their 19 point lead dwindle to three points. But then, Belton took over.
The senior exploded for 12 fourth-quarter points – six of which came from the free-throw line – to save the Balers’ season.
“He was phenomenal tonight,” Kaplansky said. “He played a great game.”
Called a closer at the beginning of the season, Belton proved why. Belton wove his way through defenders to get to the basket and force free-throws at will late in the game. In his mind, he was doing everything he could to win.
“I wasn’t thinking about taking over the game,” he said. “They cut it down to three and we need this victory. If it came down to me getting 12 points in the quarter, OK, but I wasn’t thinking about it. I just wanted to win.”
He continued, “I wasn’t thinking I was the closer and I needed to get the points. If coach has faith in me to do it, I’m going to get production in the fourth quarter.”
San Benito will face No. 2 seed Piedmont Hills (26-2) at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at Independence High in San Jose.
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