Dos Pueblos High turned up the defense on Friday night, holding San Marcos to 14 points in the last three quarters of a 38-25 girls basketball victory at Sovine Gym.
Sadie Subject led the Chargers (14-6 overall, 2-2 Channel League) with 11 points and sophomore Ariana Tapia added seven in the Battle for Goleta. Mikayla Butzke had six points and four blocks and sophomore Lily Mires also scored six.
San Marcos (14-6, 0-4) grabbed an early 10-3 lead on 3-pointers by Ariel Plourde and Kiana Rojas. But the taller Chargers chipped away and got within a point at halftime (14-13) on two free throws by Mires.
Butzke gave the Chargers their first lead of the night, 15-14, with an inside basket to open the third quarter. Lily Poehler got the lead back for San Marcos with a follow shot at 6:32 of the third, then the Chargers outscored the Royals 23-9 the rest of the way.
Both teams struggled with their shooting and the second quarter score was 4-3 in favor of the Chargers. DP hit three of its four 3-pointers in the first quarter when it trailed 11-9. The Royals made just 4-of-13 from the free-throw line.
“It wasn’t a Michelangelo,” said Chargers coach Phil Sherman. “It never is when we play them. It’s always in the 20s and 30s it seems like. Especially when we play in front of people. In girls basketball, they’re not used to playing in front of big crowds. I think it gives us more energy defensively but offensively, it kind of takes something away. We were a little more anxious on offense.
“Everybody played well on defense. Ariana Tapia came off the bench and made some plays to stretch the game at the start of the third. Mikayla Butzke really controlled the boards toward the end of the game and she had some blocks that took away their possessions.”
Plourde topped the Royals with nine points and Rojas had seven.
The Royals were only down by three (27-24) when Fran Pereira swished a 15-footer from the baseline with 3:38 to play. But sophomore Ava Sommer scored a lefty layup, igniting an 11-1 run to end the game.
“They’ve got the post presence on the inside and it was hard to shoot over them,” said San Marcos coach Aaron Solis. “We had some good looks and if we’re not knocking those down, it’s going to be very tough to go inside. And Phil knows that, that’s why he’s trying to get more pressure with his guards up top. We have to figure out how we can stretch them out more.
“We’re a little young and some of our players haven’t been in this type of experience before. We’ll learn to compete in this environment the more we play these kind of games. Defensively, we were doing pretty well. They got some easy buckets in the fourth but we had to do something to try and create going the other way. I was happy with our halfcourt defense, we just need to figure out how to score against their pressure.”
The Royals will travel to Cabrillo on Tuesday while the Chargers will play at Santa Barbara at 7 p.m.