Destinee King had another huge game on Wednesday night and SBCC outscored Cuesta 21-12 in the fourth quarter to record a 68-58 women's basketball win in a WSC North contest at the Sports Pavilion.
King scored 11 of her game-high 24 points in the final period. She also grabbed a season-best 21 rebounds, giving her two straight games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. The 5-10 freshman had 30 and 20 in the Vaqueros' conference opener vs. Hancock and was named Athlete of the Week by the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table.
King has 12 double-doubles in 18 games this season.
Santa Barbara (11-7, 2-0) won its fourth straight and seventh in the last eight by dominating the backboards. The Vaqueros had a season-high 68 caroms compared to 34 for the Cougars (6-13, 1-2).
Jeanie Pattison had 14 points (hitting 3-5 from 3-point land) with eight rebounds and Kesler Johnson added nine points and 12 boards. Jocelin Petatan had a stellar all-around game with nine points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals.
Autumn Russell led Cuesta with 21 points and 10 rebounds. The Cougars outshot the Vaqueros 34 to 31 percent but SBCC had 30 more field-goal attempts and made eight more baskets.
Cuesta took an early 16-8 lead and went up by 10 (27-17) with 7:08 to go in the second quarter. King hit a 10-foot jumper on the fast break and Pattison nailed a 3-pointer to spark a 15-0 run by the Vaqueros.
"Cuesta plays hard and #20 (Connor Storlie who scored 17) was hard to stop," said SBCC coach Sandrine Krul. "We adjusted in the second half, going to a matchup zone that caused them some problems. Then Destinee got hot.
"This game was going to be determined by who played the hardest at the end. This was our first home game in eight weeks and I think we might have been a little too excited at the start."
Santa Barbara led 32-30 at the half and 47-46 after three quarters. The Vaqueros took control by starting the fourth on a 15-5 run, capped by a Johnson layup that put them ahead 62-51 with 3:42 to go.
"Things weren't going our way in the first 13 minutes and we just kept fighting," added Krul. "We have a lot of unsung heroes. I know Destinee gets a lot of press but we have Kesler coming off the bench and Jocelin playing hard all the time. Christina Mattis brings us energy off the bench and Nalei'a Brackett plays hard also.
"Destinee can't do what she does without the great play of her teammates."
The Vaqueros travel to Oxnard on Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest.
