A dominant first quarter and strong closing kick was enough for the Santa Barbara High boys’ basketball team to take one massive step closer to its goal of winning the Channel League title.
The Dons completed the season sweep of rival San Marcos with a 57-43 road win on Monday night at the Thunderhut.
“This game, our last game, all of our games recently have been defense oriented,” said Santa Barbara high coach Greg Zuffelato. “We are scoring points, but it’s because of our defense.”
The Santa Barbara defense was suffocating in the first quarter. The Dons jumped out to a 12-3 lead with 2:34 remaining in the first quarter on a three-pointer by D.J. Wilson.
Wilson knocked down three three-pointers in the first quarter and finished with 15 points overall. Santa Barbara took a 17-5 at the end of the period after a pass ahead in transition from Luke Zuffelato to Jack Holdren for a fast-break layup.
In the second quarter San Marcos found marginal improvement offensively led by sophomores Brody Green and Koji Hefner, who accounted for all eleven San Marcos points in the period,
A pull-up jumper by Green cut the San Marcos deficit to 24-7 early in the second quarter and Hefner followed with a four-point play midway through the quarter that trimmed the Santa Barbara lead to 26-14.
A midrange jumpshot by Hefner brought San Marcos within 26-16 going into halftime.
“What we told our guys was just to go play basketball. Be basketball players,” said San Marcos coach James Kinzler of digging out of the early hole. “We just needed to get loose and go play.”
Santa Barbara opened the second half on a 10-6 run capped off by a driving runner by Luke Zuffelato that increased the lead to 36-22 midway through the third quarter.
Zuffelato scored nine of his game-high 22 points in the third quarter.
However, San Marcos battled back and ripped off a quick 9-0 run capped off by a Shane Kadlec three-pointer with 1:40 remaining that brought the San Marcos deficit down to 36-31.
The Royals continued to control the action early in the fourth quarter as a driving layup by Kadlec cut the Santa Barbara lead to 39-36 with 5:35 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The uncertainty of a one-possession game brought the best out of Santa Barbara as Tobin Shyrock dribbled along the baseline and found a cutting Finn Whipps for a three-point play to increase the Dons’ lead to 42-36 with 5:21 remaining in the game.
San Marcos never trimmed the Santa Barbara lead under six points again for the remainder of the game.
With the victory Santa Barbara improved to 20-7 overall and 12-1 in Channel League play . The Dons will play their regular season finale on Wednesday at Rio Mesa and can clinch at least a share of the Channel League title with a victory.
San Marcos dropped to 13-13 and 7-6 in Channel League play. The Royals clinched the fourth and final automatic berth into the CIF playoffs out of the Channel League by virtue of Ventura’s victory over Buena.