After a competitive first half, the injury-depleted Dos Pueblos boys’ basketball team could not keep pace with Santa Barbara’s fast paced offense as the Dons pulled away for an 86-51 Channel League victory on Friday night at Sovine Gymnasium.
Luke Zuffelato had a quiet night by his standards, but still finished with a game-high 24 points. Eleven Santa Barbara players reached the scoring column in what was an impressive offensive performance.
“Our whole challenge coming in was that we knew that they were really good offensively,” said Santa Barbara High coach Greg Zuffelato of Dos Pueblos. “Our defense is what we’re trying to build our program on.”
The Dons jumped out to a 17-7 lead midway through the first quarter on a driving layup by Will Harman. However, Dos Pueblos outscored Santa Barbara 9-7 over the remainder of the period and cut its deficit to 24-16 on a three-pointer by Matthew Zamora three-pointer.
Zamora dribbled into another deep three-pointer with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter, cutting the Dos Pueblos deficit to 26-19 and forced a Santa Barbara timeout.
Less than a minute later, Zamora stepped into a passing lane and raced up court for what appeared to be a breakaway layup, but Zuffelato chased him down from behind and swatted his attempt off the backboard.
That sequence shifted the momentum of the game as the Dons found extra juice defensively going forward. A three-pointer by Tobin Shyrock increased the Santa lead to 35-23 with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter.
Shyrock finished with 15 points and his feel for pushing the pace opened up the Santa Barbara offense.
“When he plays like he did tonight, getting to the basket, pushing the ball, the last time he did that we had 89 against Corona Del Mar and we had 84 or whatever today,” said Greg Zuffelato of Shyrock. “It’s from him getting the ball and going and today what’s great is that he got to the basket and finished too.”
A driving layup by Jack Holdren gave Santa Barbara a 41-31 lead with 20 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
The Dons broke open the game in the third quarter outsourcing Dos Pueblos 27-11 in the third quarter. Zuffelato scored 12 points in the third quarter and Finn Whipps scored eight of his nine points in the third quarter, including a corner three-pointer to open the scoring.
Santa Barbara entered the fourth quarter with a 68-42 and the respective benches played the majority of the fourth quarter.
Justin Stock led the way for Dos Pueblos with 14 points, converting several highly-contest shots along the way. Zamora added ten points and Allister Linden chipped in six points.
With the victory, Santa Barbara improves to 3-0 in Channel League play and Dos Pueblos drops to 0-3. Dos Pueblos will be without standout forward Micah Goss for the remainder of the season due to injury. Senior guard Christian Perez was injured during the game and did not return.
“I’m proud of the way that my guys battled. I’ve never had a year like this where we are losing key players,” said Dos Pueblos coach Joe Zamora. “The guys that are coming are doing the best that they can. We are putting them in positions that they’ve never been in before against a good team like that.”
The Dons will host the Santa Barbara Holiday Classic next week, beginning on December, 27, which features some of the top teams in Southern California, including national powerhouse Sierra Canyon.