SANTA BARBARA, CA – Playing in front of its largest home crowd of the season on Wednesday night, the SBCC men's basketball team couldn't keep pace with a talented, much larger Ventura team, falling 82-65.
After an undefeated first two weeks of conference play, the Vaqueros (7-12, 2-1) entered the game in second place, just ahead of the Pirates (16-5, 4-1). SBCC held the lead for two minutes to start the game, with a jumper from Tyler Williams and a layup by Aidan Mandel putting them up 4-2 to feed its energized home audience.
However, the Pirates would put their stamp on the game from there, with back-to-back threes starting a 14-0 run. The lead wouldn't go below double-figures the rest of the way.
After trailing 48-26 at halftime, the Vaqueros continued to compete in the second half, outscoring Ventura 39-34 the rest of the way. Mandel provided one of the highlights of the year, throwing down a baseline alley-oop dunk plus the harm that sent the crowd into a frenzy. His 22 points and seven rebounds on 8-of-15 from the field led the way.
Point guard Wilfrid Nado was SBCC's other double-digit scorer, putting in 14 on 6-of-11 shooting. Julian Hicks provided some solid minutes off the bench as well, finishing with nine points on 3-of-6 field attempts.
SBCC will head on the road for its next two outings, beginning with a trip to Allan Hancock this Saturday, Jan. 21 for a 5:00 p.m. tipoff.