Bishop Diego boys basketball fell to a strong Pacifica Christian squad by a score of 58-54 in a non-league matchup on Saturday.
Pacifica Christian came into the game ranked No. 74 in California on MaxPreps, while the Cardinals are currently slotted at No. 163.
“I’m very proud of the players and how they’re competing every game,” Bishop Diego head coach Caleb Richey said. “We have some things to clean up, but we are getting better every game. Overall, I just love how hard we’ve been playing.
“We have another tough matchup coming up in a couple of weeks against Legacy Christian Academy. We’ll be ready to compete.”
The Cardinals held a 30-28 lead at halftime, but Pacifica Christian made clutch plays down the stretch to pull out the four-point win.
Bishop Diego’s Crew Sjovold led all scorers with 19 points, while Rudy Blue joined him in double figures with 16 points of his own.
Aliso Niguel 78, Dos Pueblos 34
The Chargers struggled to keep up with Aliso Niguel in the Nike Extravaganza on Saturday.
“It was a really good experience for our younger players in this prestigious tournament,” Dos Pueblos head coach Joe Zamora said. “We brought up three freshmen from our JV team to play in the game because of the fact that we’re missing so many players due to season-ending injuries.”
Aliso Niguel outscored the Chargers 20-9 in the opening quarter and never looked back en route to the win.
Coulter Jay and Evan Pinsker provided strong senior leadership for Dos Pueblos in the loss, according to Zamora.
“We couldn’t sustain the offense because of the new and different parts that we are trying to put together,” Zamora said. “We were a little bit slow on defense, allowing them to get some easy points in the paint and from the perimeter.”
Girls Basketball
Santa Barbara High girls basketball fell to Ventura High by a score of 86-15 on Saturday in Ventura.
Shea Gannon put up 11 points and six rebounds for the Dons, while Audre Castillo provided strong minutes off the bench.
“We struggled mightily in the first half with simple basketball play, but fortunately got it together and played a much more sound second half,” Santa Barbara High head coach Andrew Butcher said. “We cut our mistakes in half, but still need to improve to be competitive.”
The Dons will host rival Dos Pueblos on Tuesday at 7 p.m.