After road trips to Arizona, Los Angeles and Ventura counties and the Central Valley for the first three weeks of the season, the Santa Barbara High boys basketball team finally got to show their stuff at home on Thursday night.
The Dons didn’t disappoint their supporters as they nearly shut out Pacifica in the first quarter and finished the fourth quarter with a running clock in rolling to a 79-40 rout in the Channel League opener for both teams at J.R. Richards Gym.
Junior guard Owen Horn scored 17 points to lead four players in double figures for Santa Barbara (2-5 overall). Sophomore forward Brent Sharpton added 14 points, junior guard Levi Oakes tossed in 13 and sophomore Blake Lee contributed 10, including a ferocious slam dunk to start the fourth quarter. A total of nine players scored for the Dons.
Santa Barbara tore through Pacifica (2-7) like a buzz saw from the opening tip. Oakes buried a three-pointer and Sharpton followed with a corner three to cap a nice passing sequence. Then came the layups in transition. Sharpton fed Oakes for a layup and Oakes followed with another lay-in off a fast break. A little later, Horn finished a pass from Lee and Lee scored off an Oakes assist.
“We’re trying to get the ball over half court in three seconds after a make or a miss, it doesn’t matter,” said Santa Barbara coach Greg Zuffelato. “We have the personnel and athletes to get out and run. We want to get it out quick and go.”
At the other end of the court, the Dons’ swarming man defense forced bad shots and turnovers. They led 26-0 before Pacific’s Joel Salcedo broke inside for a layup with 23 seconds left in the quarter. Anthony Calico scored another layup for the Tritons before Horn put an exclamation point on Santa Barbara’s impressive quarter with a 40-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“Oh man we were so excited,” said Zuffelato of finally playing at home after six away games. “They were tough games, tough teams and we were really ready. It showed in the first quarter. After all that frustration from some of the losses, we just dove in. Our focus was defense, defense, defense and they did a great job.”
Horn, who started on last season’s Channel League championship team that reached the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals, said it felt good to be back in the home gym.
“It’s good to have a first one at home and win it. We were playing a lot of tough teams, had a tough schedule so far but we’re not worried about the losses we’ve had. We know that we played a lot of good teams and we’re going to start winning from here.”
The combined record of the five teams (Arizona-San Tan Charter, Sierra Canyon, Oaks Christian, North Clovis and Fresno-Bullard) that beat Santa Barbara is 35-7.
The Dons play two more league games next week. They’re at Buena on Tuesday and host crosstown rival San Marcos on Thursday.