Prince Arceneaux hit two straight 3-pointers to spark a 15-7 run to open the second half on Wednesday night and SBCC went on to defeat L.A. Valley 82-57 for its first men's basketball win of the season.
Arceneaux, a 6-7 freshman from Dorsey High who was in UCSB's program last year, scored a game-high 19 points on 6-11 shooting, including 3-6 from long range. Point guard Alonzo McCain added 13 points and nine assists to help the Vaqueros (1-4) capture their home opener.
"It's all mental, when we play a good game mentally and we're not worried about the physical difference, we play well," said Arceneaux. "We're starting to know how to play with each other. We're coming from different places but we all have to play together.
"It feels good to get our first win and we want to build off this."
SBCC had its best shooting game of the year (48.3 percent) and nailed 12-of-28 from 3-point country, including 7-15 in the second half. McCain was 3-5 on triples and Steven Harper (10 points) hit 2-2.
Jamin Lackey had 18 points for the Monarchs (0-6), who shot just 41.5 percent and made 3-15 from the 3-point arc. The home team knocked down 14-15 free throws while Valley struggled at 45.5 percent (10-22).
Jared Moore added 10 points for Santa Barbara and Alex Koutroubis had eight points and four rebounds.
SBCC took its biggest lead of the first half (32-25) on a 3-pointer by McCain that capped a 12-6 run. Kenneth Edwards drained another 3-pointer with 0:05 on the clock, boosting the halftime advantage to 37-31.
The Vaqueros had just four turnovers in the second half after committing 11 in the opening half.
"I really thought we did a good job defensively in the first half," said coach Morris Hodges, "but we were inefficient with the ball. We really cleaned up our turnovers in the second half and we continued to play good defense and did a nice job of sharing the ball."
The Vaqueros went on a 12-2 run midway through the second half, thanks to four straight 3-point possessions that stretched the lead to 22 points, 70-48, with 8:45 to play. McCain hit a 3-pointer and Koutroubis scored six straight on an old-fashioned 3-point play and a long 3 to beat the shot clock. Pablo Miranda capped the run with a 3-ball from the right corner on an assist from McCain.
