Santa Barbara High took control of the game in the second half en route to a 74-59 crosstown rivalry win over Dos Pueblos on Monday night inside Sovine Gym.
While the Dons (17-8, 10-1 Channel League) held a comfortable lead at the final buzzer, the shorthanded Chargers made the game far from comfortable. In fact, Dos Pueblos led 36-34 at halftime and it was a one-possession battle for the majority of the third.
“I was really impressed with DP. They played with so much heart,” Santa Barbara High head coach Greg Zuffelato said. “They’re decimated with injuries, but they still have very good players.”
Charger head coach Joe Zamora was pleased with the way his team competed with just seven active players due to injuries.
“It’s a crosstown rivalry. You want the kids to step up, and that was one of the things we put on the board, and I felt that they did,” Zamora said. “I told them there’s a lot of what ifs in life, and [dealing with injuries] has been a really good learning experience for us. A hard one, but we’ve banded together.”
Santa Barbara High remained atop the Channel League standings with the victory heading into a tough road matchup on Wednesday with a scrappy Oxnard team that currently sits in third place.
“[Oxnard] is going to fight. They are tough, tough kids. I think mentally, we’re ready for it,” Zuffelato said. “We know it’s a dog fight against Oxnard. We’re preparing for that.”
The Dons set the tone from the opening tip-off, as Brent Sharpton got a steal on the first possession and went coast-to-coast for the layup. On the next play, Owen Horn came up with a steal and fed Blake Lee for a booming dunk and a quick 4-0 lead.
Santa Barbara continued to dominate the early stages, beginning the game on a 16-3 run and taking command on both sides of the floor to take a 22-8 lead into the second.
The Chargers were not discouraged by the slow start, as they began the second on a 13-4 run capped off by an Evan Pinsker three-pointer to cut the deficit to 26-21 with 4:18 left in the half.
Pinsker’s deep ball sparked a series of back-and-forth buckets as the two sides exchanged blows until Dos Pueblos’ Coulter Jay knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 34-33 in favor of SB with 22 seconds remaining.
The Dons missed their ensuing shot and left three seconds on the clock, which proved to be plenty of time as Jay took the inbound down the court, put his defender in a spin cycle and swished home a three-pointer to give his team a 36-34 lead at halftime.
“We didn’t come out too strong. I was a little disappointed with that, but we talked about it, regrouped, and they battled,” Zamora said of the second quarter. “[SB] takes us out of our things, but our kids made a couple adjustments that we talked about, and we got some wide-open looks.”
Jay was a dominant presence throughout the night for the Chargers, especially in the second quarter. The senior dropped 15 of his 22 points in the second to power his team to the halftime lead. He also ended the night with 11 rebounds.
“Coulter’s been through a lot. He’s my only four-year player for me out of this group,” Zamora said. “He’s a leader, and sometimes I think it takes a back seat to guys, which I don’t want him to.
“I felt like tonight against Santa Barbara he really wanted to step up and be active on both ends, and he did.”
Dos Pueblos hit four three-pointers and forced several turnovers in the second quarter, outscoring Santa Barbara High 28-12 to take the one-possession lead into the break.
The seesaw action continued into the third, as neither team held a lead larger than one possession for the vast majority of the quarter.
After Jay converted an and-one layup to tie things up at 45-45 with 3:35 left, the Dons found their groove once again. Santa Barbara High ended the quarter on an 11-3 run that featured 11 unanswered points before the Chargers trimmed the deficit down to 56-48 heading into the fourth.
The Dons regained their first-quarter momentum late in the third with active hands on defense that turned into points on the other end of the court.
That momentum carried into the fourth, as the Dons scored the first nine points of the quarter, emphasized by an alley-oop dunk from Horn to Lee to balloon the advantage to 65-48 with 4:56 to play.
Santa Barbara High continued to pull away down the stretch as Oakes scored 10 points in the fourth to help his team seal the 74-59 victory.
Oakes took over the game in the second half, pouring in 23 of his game-high 27 points in the final two quarters of play. He also hauled in seven rebounds in the win.
“The way [DP] plays, they’re bigger and have a hard time containing our guards, so it was just attack, attack, attack,” Zuffelato said. “Owen did a little bit in the first half, but Levi decided he was just going to do it every time. So we start running little actions for him to get isolated.
“He did a great job, and he came out and guarded Coulter too, so he did it on both ends of the court.”
While Oakes led all scorers with 27, Horn finished the night with 19 points of his own. On the other side, Logan Pearce followed up Jay with 15 points for the Chargers.
While the Dons take on Oxnard, Dos Pueblos will head across town to take on San Marcos on Wednesday at 7 p.m.