Visiting Chaffey offered a stern test for the SBCC men’s basketball team in the final game of non-conference play.
The Vaqueros battled throughout, but could not keep pace down the stretch of a 103-84 loss on Friday afternoon at the Sports Pavilion.
“They play really hard, they are fast and athletic. They forced a lot of turnovers in the first half against us, which put us in a bit of a hole,” said SBCC coach Devin Engebretsen of Chaffey. “The other thing is with their penetration they put us in a lot of fouling situations.”
SBCC suffered injuries during the game to Max Marquez and Nick Tjaden, which really impacted overall depth. The Vaqueros are also without their top interior presence Aiden Mandel, who has missed the majority of the season with a leg injury.
The game was tight early as Truman Teuber knocked down a three-pointer off an assist from Tyler Williams that tied the score at 12-12 with 14:30 remaining in the first half. Teuber finished with a team-high 27 points, including 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range.
Chaffey’s full court pressure and trapping took a toll on SBCC as the first half progressed. An offensive rebound and putback by Brody Davis gave the Panthers a 51-35 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the first half.
A runner as the halftime buzzer sounded by Nick Tjaden cut the SBCC deficit to 51-37 at the break.
The Vaqueros carried the momentum into the locker room and opened the second half on a 16-6 run capped off by a corner three-pointer by Williams that cut the deficit to 57-53 with 16:10 remaining in the game.
However, Chaffey responded to the SBCC run by picking up the pace and attacking in transition. An alley-oop from Nate Simon to Marcus Green for a thunderous dunk gave Chaffey an 80-66 lead midway through the second half.
“We have a very young team, we have a lot of quickness, we don’t have a lot of size. We’ve been working on keeping our heads in the game and playing hard through adversity,” said Chaffey coach Jeff Klein. “I think every time Santa Barbara gave us a little adversity we responded.”
SBCC made one final push and cut its deficit to 87-77 on a three-point play by Isaiah Hicks with 5:09 remaining. Hicks finished with 25 points.
SBCC will open Western State Conference play at home against Cuesta on Wednesday, January 10.