A balanced attack boosted the Dos Pueblos High girls’ basketball team to a 69-26 victory over rival Santa Barbara on Tuesday night.
For many years Santa Barbara dominated local competition in girls’ basketball, but times have changed and Dos Pueblos has a talented group that is eager to flex its muscle.
“That’s what makes this group so tough, everybody can score,” said Dos Pueblos coach Manny Murillo. “One thing that keeps us going is that everybody touches the rock. It’s never a dominant one or two people, we try to get everybody involved.”
The Chargers’ depth was on full display against the Dons as six players scored at least eight points led by Lauren Robles, a transfer from Santa Barbara High, who scored 15 points on five three-pointers.
“Lauren transferred from here so I think it means a lot to her to come back here and have a good performance. I wanted to try and get her going early.” Murillo said. “Santa Barbara is historic. They’ve ran girls basketball in the high school realm for so long with a lot of kids from the Goleta area as well.”
The Chargers jumped out to an 18-0 lead on a three-pointer by Eden Wynne midway through the first quarter. Santa Barbara finally got on the board at the 2:59 mark on a Dayzia Mendoza basket off an assist from Rosie Dionicio.
Mendoza passed the 1,000 point threshold in a victory over Royal in Santa Barbara’s previous game. She was honored pregame for the landmark achievement.
“She’s a great kid,” Butcher said. “We had all those kids leave three years ago and she stayed. To me that said a lot about her character.”
Mendoza finished with a team-high 14 points. Ella Popovich chipped in six points and sophomore Alexandra Arnold was a stalwart on defense for Santa Barbara.
The Chargers lead ballooned to 44-13 at halftime and 60-21 at the end of the third quarter. Kindah Ahmad-Reda and Taylor Grant finished with 14 and 13 points respectively for Dos Pueblos.
The Chargers will host rival San Marcos on Thursday. Santa Barbara will travel to Oxnard on Thursday.