LOS ANGELES, Calif. – After going three games in 2021 without a 20-point scorer, the SBCC men's basketball team had two in its last game at the LA Valley Tournament game on Friday against Pasadena. Forwards Adam Weingard (9-18 FG) and Jon Pearson (8-12 FG) went for 24 and 20 points, respectively, helping lead the Vaqueros to an 87-66 win.
"It was just a different type of game for us in terms of Pasadena's defensive strategy and philosophy. We haven't seen a team play an extended trapping zone all year, and they typically do it for 40 minutes," head coach Devin Engebretsen said. "I think our guys eventually realized getting it inside at the rim was the key to victory. We really got to the basket by spacing them out and attacking the rim and you can see that in our shooting percentage for the game, particularly from inside the arc."
Santa Barbara shot an efficient 29-for-45 (64.4%) on two-point shots. Overall, they set a new season-high converting 54 percent of their field goal attempts. Sophomore forward Brycyn Gossett was nearly perfect going 7-of-8 for 15 points to go along with three steals.
The Vaqueros (3-1) needed some time to adjust to the defense, but they were never really in jeopardy of falling behind. Despite turning hte ball over 20 times in the first half, they headed into halftime with a 10-point lead.
"It took our guys a while to figure out how to attack this type of zone. From our standpoint, we wanted to shoot less than 25 threes," said Engebretsen. "These types of zones invite teams to shoot a ton of threes and to our credit, we were disciplined in that area by only shooting 20 of them. However, we really need to clean up our turnovers. Obviously 30 in a game is never good, with 20 of those coming in the first half."
Pasadena (0-5) continued to cause trouble with their zone, mixing up a 1-2-2 and 1-3-1. The Lancers cut the game to 50-49 at the 11:20 mark of the second half on a three-pointer.
Pearson went on a personal 5-0 run with an and-1 and another layup, followed by a
Billy Whitting three-point play to make it a 58-50 lead. The Vaqueros then went to an aggressive full court press, with two steals leading to back-to-back wing triples from Weingard to make it 64-52 at 9:10. Another steal by Bates and a fast break conversion layup for Whitting pushed the lead to 66-52 and forced a timeout by Pasadena.
"Going to the press at about the halfway point of the 2nd half really helped increase our pace, forced some turnovers," Engebretsen said. "Adam hitting those two threes allowed us to have some breathing room, and finally saw us not turn the ball over and convert all of our defensive stops."
The Lancers weren't done as they cut it to 68-59 at the 5:50 mark. But that was the closest they would get as SBCC finished the game on a 19-7 run for the final score.
"This was really a game where we wanted to take advantage of our size and depth. Our emphasis was to move the ball across their zone and eventually get to the rim. Adam, Brycyn and Jon all did an excellent job of this and it is reflected in their field goals.
"It was great to see Adam really have the breakout game we knew he was capable of, and also see Jon use his strength and ability to finish near the basket throughout the game. Those three guys didn't settle for jumpers and made it a point to get to the rim and finish those close range shots."
SBCC continues its best start to a season in recent memory. At 3-1, this is the first time the Vaqueros have a record of .500 or better through four games since at least the 2013-14 season. They will be back home this Wednesday, Nov. 17 to face Canyons at 5:00 p.m.
