By Dave Loveton, SBCC Sports Information
SBCC built an eight-point lead with 4:39 to play in Friday's consolation semifinal of its MTXE women's basketball tournament, then hung on to edge San Mateo 54-52 in the Sports Pavilion.
The Vaqueros (2-3) went ahead 51-43, then scored just three points in the closing minutes while the Falcons (2-2) put up nine. The lead shrunk to a point, 53-52, when Tamarra Lee scored on a follow shot with 22 seconds left.
Darla Morales missed two free throws for SBCC, then the Falcons thought they had gone ahead on a basket with 8.5 seconds left but instead, they were called for a kicking violation.
Victoria Jackson made the second of two free throws to put the Vaqueros up by two with 6.9 seconds on the clock. Jackson, a 5-1 sophomore from Oxnard, knocked the in-bound pass out-of-bounds and then slapped it away from Alynna Vega on the dribble with 1.4 showing. The ensuing in-bound pass deflected off a San Mateo player OB and the Vaqueros in-bounded to secure the victory.
"This was probably one of the worst games I've played this season, so I was thinking I had to do something for the team," said Jackson. "I felt like I was letting them down. I was on the bench for the last 17 minutes of the first half. I had to get out of my head and do something in that final minute.
"We can play a lot better than we did today. Our motto is to start strong, stay strong and end strong. We started off a little rough, then we picked it up and ended strong. I love this team, we put our heart and soul into everything we do."
The Vaqueros didn't shoot well (34 percent FG, 53 percent free throws) but had great balance with five players between seven and 10 points. Sylvia Hoover-Purter led the way with 10 points and Darla Morales had nine points, five rebounds and four assists. Mizhrua Bautista added nine points and three steals and center Paige Nealy had eight points before fouling out with 5:41 to play.
"That's what I love about Victoria, she doesn't pout when she's not playing well and she was ready when we needed her," said coach Sandrine Krul. "I was proud of what Victoria did because it's exactly what we've been talking about to our freshmen – you're going to have a bad game sometimes but don't pout because you're going to be put right back in. Victoria displayed that perfectly.
"And I'm really proud of Meesh (Bautista). She didn't play well yesterday but she played hard today."
The Vaqueros led 25-23 at the half as San Mateo made just 6-19 from the foul line in the first 20 minutes. The Falcons shot 38 percent from the field and 42 percent on free throws (13-31) for the game.
After falling behind 38-35, Santa Barbara went on a 12-2 run, capped by an 18-foot bucket by Darla Morales and a free throw by Stella Dulay that gave the Vaqueros a 47-40 lead. Two free throws by Purter and two more from Bautista stretched the lead to eight, 51-43, with 4:39 to play.
The Vaqueros were still up by eight, 53-45, with 2:24 to go when Mia Maffei started the Falcon rally with a steal and layup.
SBCC will battle Riverside in Saturday's consolation final at noon. Riverside eliminated San Bernardino Valley 63-57 in Friday's first game.
Sequoias (7-1) routed Moorpark 75-48 and will take on the Solano in the championship game at 4 p.m. Solano rallied past Santa Ana 59-56 on Friday. Moorpark and Santa Ana will square off for third place at 2 p.m.
