Luke Zuffelato poured in 32 points and the Santa Barbara High boys’ basketball team increased its winning streak to eight games with a 69-53 victory over Ventura on Friday night at J.R. Richards Gymnasium.
With a three-pointer early in the third quarter Zuffelato became the all-time career record holder for three-pointers in program history with 21. Zuffelato surpassed Santa Barbara High legend Bolden Brace’s record of 216 career three-pointers in his junior season.
“It means a lot. All of my hard work is paying off and it’s really amazing,” said Zuffelato of his career milestone.
It was senior night for the Dons, which included a pregame ceremony celebrating Tobin Shyrock, Will Harmon, Finn Whipps, Waylon Finkle, Jack Holdren and Kaden Ridgell.
The Dons got off to a slow start offensively, but made up for it with stingy defense and took a 10-8 lead into the second quarter.
Zuffelato began to heat up in the second quarter with three three-pointers as the Dons built a 32-20 lead at halftime.
The last couple games, the reason why we have been playing so well, the reason why we beat Oxnard is our defense,” said Santa Barbara High coach Greg Zuffelato. “Coach Hantgin has done an amazing job of really teaching the fundamentals of half-court man-to-man defense.”
Ventura cut its deficit to 45-32 on two free-throws by Parsa Kamali in the final minute of the third quarter, but freshman Owen Horn gave the Dons a huge boost with a three-pointer as the third quarter buzzer sounded that gave the Dons a 48-34 lead.
The visiting Cougars never cut their deficit to single digits in the fourth quarter.
“This was a dangerous game because it was a natural let down from a huge win. As you heard with the senior night ceremony for four out of the six guys, their most memorable moment of their entire high school career was Wednesday,” Greg Zuffelato said. “We’ve talked about mental toughness all year and they are a very mentally tough team.”
Finkle chipped in ten points for Santa Barbara, Harmon finished with eight points and Horn added six points. Ventura was led by junior big man Finn Fancher, who scored 22 points.
Santa Barbara(19-7 overall, 11-1 Channel League) will play at rival San Marcos on Monday beginning at 7 p.m.