Laguna Blanca boys basketball pulled out a thrilling 40-38 win over Thacher on Wednesday.
The win is Laguna Blanca’s first over the rival Toads in eight years.
Thacher controlled the majority of the first quarter, but a quick run by the Owls cut the lead to 14-13 heading into the second.
The second quarter was much of the same, with Thacher leading 22-21 at halftime. Eka Nayak kept Laguna Blanca in the game with nine of his 15 total points in the first half.
After Thacher once again held the lead for most of the third quarter, the Owls made a push after forcing multiple turnovers to tie the game up at 33-33 with one quarter to play.
“This was a tough game from start to finish,” Laguna Blanca coach Phillip Sherman said. “It felt like we were down by eight and would come back within two or three every time. and Thacher would go up again by eight points.”
Late in the fourth quarter, Laguna Blanca’s Carson Stewart converted a three-point play and Charlie Sheldon buried four free throws to tie the game back up after Thacher and built a small lead.
“Their zone is tough to figure out,” Sherman said. “But thanks to Josh Hansen and Charlie Sheldon our zone was also formidable in this defensive struggle.”
With Thacher up by two points late, Nayak hit a clutch and-one and converted the free throw to take a 39-38 advantage. After the Laguna Blanca defense got a stop, Hansen hit a free throw with 0.6 seconds left to ice the game and pick up the 40-38 win.
Nayak ended the night with a great all-around performance, collecting 15 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. Meanwhile, Stewart chipped in 10 points and Sheldon put up nine.
Oak Park 64, Santa Barbara 50
The Dons fell on the road to Oak Park in a non-league contest.
After leading 14-12 coming out of the first quarter, Santa Barbara struggled in the second and was outscored 21-9 to get into a 10-point hole.
They couldn’t recover from that deficit in the second half, falling by 14 points.
Luke Zuffelato hit five three-pointers in the loss, amassing 26 points to lead the team. Off the bench, Tanner Trider hit a pair of threes and provided strong defense to give the team a spark in the first half.
Defensively, Tobin Shyrock held Oak Park’s star point guard Shashe Henderson to just six points.
The Dons will host Corona Del Mar on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Dunn 72, Santa Ynez 31
The Pirates struggled on both sides of the ball en route to the loss to Dunn.
On the scoring end, Jayden Mendoza led Santa Ynez with 12 points while Ikenna Ofiaeli put in work on the boards with 11 rebounds.
