SBCC staged rally after rally on Thursday night but still came up short in a 79-76 women's basketball loss to No. 17 Chabot at the Cuesta Pre-New Year's Kickoff Classic.
Aaliyah Pauling nearly had a triple-double for the Vaqueros (7-6). The freshman guard from Spokane, Wash., had 20 points, 12 assists, nine rebounds and three steals. The assists and rebounds were season highs and she missed her season scoring high by three.
The Vaqueros fell behind by nine (75-66) with 3:49 to play, then put together a 10-1 burst. Pauling, who made 7-13 shots and 3-8 from long range, had eight of those points. She nailed a 3-pointer to tie it at 76 with 59 seconds left.
Chabot hit a basket at 0:34 and added a free throw in the final seconds.
Santa Barbara outshot the Gladiators 43 to 40 percent and dominated the boards, 60-39. They hurt their cause with a season-high 38 turnovers while Chabot had 26.
"We played great and never gave up, even after falling behind by 17," said coach Sandrine Krul. "We had a chance to win it with 11 seconds left but we turned it over. We had so many good moments and this is how we get better – by playing great teams.
"Aaliyah was a great leader, keeping us in the game with her motivation on defense and pumping up her teammates."
Meagan Moore had a season-best 15 points with three assists and three steals. Lauren Noggle had a season-high 15 rebounds and her former Dos Pueblos High teammate Holly Barrera scored 13 points with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Diamond Alexander contributed 11 points and six boards. Hannah Rogers had six points and seven rebounds.
Chabot (10-3) led 30-15 after a quarter and 39-22 late in the second period. The Gladiators were up 39-28 at intermission and led by 13 (47-34) early in the third stanza. The Vaqueros stormed back with a 20-6 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Barrera that put SBCC ahead 54-53 with 1:43 to go in the third.
The Vaqueros will play their third straight top-20 opponent on Friday in the consolation semifinals at 1:30 p.m. SBCC will take on No. 6 Merced (12-3), which was edged by No. 13 Siskiyous 69-66 on Thursday afternoon.
