Alexander, Pauling pace Vaqueros in 98-73 season-opening win

Aaliyah Pauling scored 18 points and Diamond Alexander added 15 points and seven rebounds as SBCC opened its women's basketball season with a 98-73 rout of Taft in the SBCC Crossover Tournament.

Alexander, a 5-11 sophomore from Inglewood, scored 15 in the opening half as the Vaqueros built a 52-39 advantage. SBCC has 11 freshmen on its 14-woman roster but they meshed well with the three returning players – Alexander, Morgan Giove and Hannah Rogers.

All 14 players got into the season opener and 13 got in the scorebook.

"With a new team, sometimes it's hard to start off strong but it wasn't hard at all," said Alexander. "We had a lot of energy right off the bat.

"We were sharing the ball really well tonight. We have this thing where we say "one more" and swing it to the open shooter. We were playing a lot of unselfish basketball."

The Vaqueros assisted on 28 of their 35 baskets. Holly Barrera, a freshman from Dos Pueblos High, scored nine points, nabbed six rebounds and handed out six assists. Meagan Moore and Lei-Helani Talaro added five assists each off the bench.

Kaysie Back had 14 points and five rebounds off the bench and Rogers, a sophomore from Bishop Diego High, scored 10 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, including seven offensive. Freshman forward Lauren Noggle added six points and seven rebounds.

Pauling, a 5-10 freshman guard from Spokane, Wash., hit 7-of-12 from the field and 4-8 from 3-point country. She scored 18 points in just 15 minutes before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.

There were plenty of personals as the teams combined for 69 fouls and eight disqualifications. The Vaqueros were whistled for 41 fouls and had five players foul out. Four of them, including three starters, picked up their fifth foul in the last 79 seconds of the third quarter and the first 45 seconds of the fourth.

The Vaqueros outshot the Cougars 48.6 to 40.4 percent and dominated on the backboards, 62-29, and in bench points, 45-17.

"In practice for three weeks, we've been harping on them that our subs have to show up in practice," said 14th-year coach Sandrine Krul. "We kept telling them there will be games when our starters foul out and look what happened tonight – three starters fouled out early in the fourth period.

"Everybody played well and played their role. Our subs were great tonight and they're already buying into our 2-and-2 philosophy (stop 2, make 2). We're just going to grow from here."

Leading 54-44 with 7:38 to go in the third, the Vaqueros went on a 13-5 run capped by a layup from Sophia Torres that boosted the margin to 18 points (67-49).

The Vaqueros will host Fullerton on Saturday at 5 p.m.  Moorpark beat Fullerton 61-36 in Friday's first game.