A fairy-tale basketball season is unfolding at Santa Barbara High.
Spurred on by a capacity crowd, the Dons pulled off their second legendary upset of the season. Santa Barbara made clutch play after clutch play and defeated Southern California powerhouse Mater Dei, 75-70, in overtime to punch their tickets to the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals.
“The magic the last two years comes down to the character of our leaders. Carter [Battle], DJ [Wilson], Luke [Zuffelato] — they are such high-quality people,” said Santa Barbara High coach Greg Zuffelato. “It looks like luck, but this isn’t luck. This has happened a lot now. We’ve hit some big shots.”
The Dons captured what seemed like a victory for the ages earlier this season when Luke Zuffelato banked in a buzzer-beater to defeat another elite program in Sierra Canyon at the Santa Barbara Holiday Classic.
Since then, Santa Barbara has proved that victory was far from a fluke. Against Mater Dei, it was Diesel Lowe’s moment to flex his clutch gene with a game-tying three-pointer with four seconds remaining.
“Diesel hit a huge shot. We are not here without him making that shot,” Greg Zuffelato said.
To make it into overtime seemed like a pipe dream with just 1:29 remaining in regulation as Santa Barbara trailed 61-57. But three-point shooting is a great equalizer in modern basketball, and the Dons have no shortage of talented marksmen.
Santa Barbara made 16 three-pointers over the course of the game, and few were bigger than Zuffelato’s staredown bomb from the right wing with 39 seconds remaining in regulation that cut the Dons’ deficit to 61-60.
Zuffelato stole the ensuing inbounds pass, but Santa Barbara turned the ball over. After two Mater Dei free throws, Santa Barbara trailed 63-60 leading to Lowe’s big shot.
In overtime, a thunderous dunk by Mater Dei standout Luke Barnett tied the score at 68-68 with 1:10 to play.
However, with just over 30 seconds to play, Zuffelato put Santa Barbara up for good with a deep three-pointer that he banked in over the outstretched arms of Mater Dei’s 6’6″ sophomore Demarcus Henry.
“Just giving it to God, honestly. It was the same as Sierra Canyon. I just threw it up,” said Zuffelato of the decisive three-pointer. “I like the bank, I guess.”
Zuffelato finished with a game-high 28 points. Diesel Lowe added 14 points; DJ Wilson chipped in 12 points, including four huge three-pointers; and Owen Horn scored 11 points, including nine in the second quarter off the bench.
Carter Battle was everywhere defensively for Santa Barbara and helped hold Barnett to 13 points, which is well below his season average.
Mater Dei was led offensively by Blake Davidson and Henry, who finished with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
The visiting Monarchs led 18-13 at the end of the first quarter and 36-30 at halftime.
The Dons will travel to Mira Costa on Saturday for a semifinal contest. Regardless of the result of Saturday’s game, Santa Barbara has clinched a spot in the state tournament with the victory over Mater Dei.
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