Santa Barbara Suffers 53-28 Loss to Righetti
Righetti's Bree Luna led all scorers with 12 points
A slow start snowballed as the Santa Barbara High girls basketball team suffered a 53-28 loss to Righetti on Thursday night at J.R. Richards gymnasium.
The Dons only have one player with substantial varsity experience and Righetti took advantage behind relentless full-court pressure.
“We talked before the game and really competent teams complete passes,” said Santa Barbara coach Andrew Butcher. “That’s really been our focus in practice and we’re getting there in practice, but it didn’t carry over to the game tonight.”
The visiting Warriors opened the game on a 10-0 run that was capped off by a three-pointer from Bree Luna with just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Santa Barbara settled down and cut its deficit to 14-8 on a baseline jumper by Dayzia Mendoza midway through the second quarter, but that’s as close as the game would get. Righetti closed the first half on a 13-4 run to take a 27-12 lead into halftime.
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“They played hard, They played as a team and they played really good defense,” said Righetti coach Desiree Hitch. “I think they struggled a little bit with fouls early on, but they adjusted and played really well.”
In the second half, Righetti slowly built on its lead. A three-pointer by Eva Delgado gave the Warriors a 37-17 lead with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Righetti boasted a balanced attack with eight players scoring, led by Luna, who finished with 12 points. Raya Pina-Lee scored ten points off the bench all of which came in the fourth quarter.
Mendoza led Santa Barbara with eleven points and 13 rebounds. Miranda Dennis contributed six points and three rebounds. Chloe Adams scored five points and grabbed ten rebounds.
“We just got to chip away at it,” Butcher said. “We can play better defense, We can rebound a little better and we can take better care of the ball.”
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