The Dos Pueblos trio of Cyrus Wallace, Diego Riker and Dylan Shugart played beautifully off each other in the second half Friday night, leading the Chargers to a 58-42 win over Santa Barbara in a Channel League boys basketball game before a full house at Sovine Gym.
The trio scored 34 of the team’s 38 points after halftime.
“We talked at halftime about coming out and playing our game, the solid basketball we like to play,” DP coach Joe Zamora said.
“We picked up our intensity for sure.” said Shugart. “Defensively, we got stops and then we got the ball and ran up the court and outran them.”
Dos Pueblos improves to 16-3 overall and 3-0 in league. Santa Barbara is 12-10 and 1-2.
After a ragged first half that ended in a 20-20 tie, Dos Pueblos calmed down and played with more cohesion.
Zamora told his players: “Just bear down on defense and not give them open threes like we did in the first half, And the guys responded. They calmed down. It was an electric gym, you got a lot going on. Getting high school boys to calm down and play through that, I was really proud of them.”
Wallace buried a three-pointer to ignite a 10-0 run that opened up a 38-27 lead with a minute left in the third quarter. The Chargers’ defense forced a couple of Santa Barbara misses and Shugart turned them into baskets, a shot inside and a coast-to-coast lay-up.
“I just saw the open lane and went full speed at the rim and finished,” said Shugart.
“Dylan has always been a guy who attacks the rim,” said Zamora. “He loves getting to the basket. He’s been that way since he was playing in the Heat (youth basketball) program. The best part about that is when he gets to the basket, it opens things up for Diego, Max (McCeney), Daniel (Arzate), whoever is out there. He’s just an aggressive guard who doesn’t like to lose.”
Wallace capped the run with another three-pointer. The fired-up junior guard clenched his fists and yelled, “Let’s go!,” as he ran back on defense.
“We were definitely more relaxed in the second half,” Shugart said. “We calmed down and did what we do best.”
Santa Barbara got as close as six points in the fourth quarter, 43-37, on a three-pointer by Ben Brown and a three-point play by Davis Kim. But Dos Pueblos responded with back-to-back threes by Riker and Shugart.
Riker and Shugart each scored 15 points for the game and 11 and 10 points, respectively in the second half. Wallace knocked down 13 of his game-high 17 points after halftime. Marcellous Wallace was a monster on the boards, hauling in 17 rebounds.
Ben Brown led Santa Barbara with 13 points, Austin Lind had 12 and Morgan Peus 11.
The Dons couldn’t get consistent scoring. They’d make a couple of shots and then go scoreless in their next 3-4 possessions.
“We just couldn’t get somebody to get hot and give us some scoring,” said Santa Barbara coach Dave Bregante.
Neither team could get into an offensive flow in the first half.
Lind hit a couple of 15 footers and a three-pointer in the third quarter but the Dons struggled to find anyone else to score.
“Austin had his best game of the season and did a good job blocking shots and gave us some scoring, which we need,” said Bregante. “We’re having trouble scoring right now.”
Dos Pueblos, meanwhile, had its trio playing in perfect harmony to keep the Chargers unbeaten in league.