After a forgettable first half when it fell behind by 21 points, the SBCC men’s basketball team made a stirring second-half comeback Saturday night to beat L.A. Pierce 89-84 in overtime in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Sports Pavilion.
After getting outshot 61 to 38 percent, SBCC went into the locker room on the wrong end of a 46-27 score.
“We started off real slow and we were down 19 at half,” said freshman guard David Lane, who scored 20 of his 22 points after intermission. “We knew we had to pull it together. Our defense was slacking and our rotations were slow. We just had to pull it together on defense.
“I had a slow first half (1-for-6) but the guys encouraged me and I came out strong in the second half, as did everyone else.”
Richard Somdah had 22 points and 10 rebounds as the Vaqueros improved to 11-13 overall and 3-1 in the WSC North with their sixth win in seven outings. Justus Von Wright led Pierce (6-12, 0-3) with 20 points.
Lane, who made 10-15 free throws in the second half, also had 12 assists and seven rebounds. Mark Keeten and Lucky Teeguarden added 14 points apiece.
“At halftime, I wrote ‘No poise, no patience, no rebounding, no attacking’ on the board,” said SBCC coach Morris Hodges. “In the second half, the guys showed a lot of heart, guts and character to grind it out and come back. Every time they made a run, we answered.”
Lane hit a 3-pointer with 44.9 seconds left in regulation to give the Vaqueros their first lead, 70-69, since the opening minutes. Harout Markarian countered with a trey of his own 13 seconds later to put the Brahmas up 72-70.
Lane missed a pair of free throws with 19.9 seconds left and a pair of jump balls followed with SBCC getting the possession at the 14.8 mark. Somdah rebounded a missed 3 and put up a 13-footer, which fell right into the hands of Keeten, who scored a layup with two seconds left to send it into overtime.
The Vaqueros took an 81-75 lead in overtime, thanks to a 3 by Lane, a twisting layup by Keeten and 2-of-3 free throws by Lane after he was fouled on a 3-point try.
SBCC has another home game on Wednesday against Ventura at 5 p.m. The game can be heard on internet radio by going to PresidioSports.com and clicking on the broadcast icon.
