The Ventura Cougars continued their quest for girls basketball perfection in Tuesday night’s 63-38 trampling of Santa Barbara High at J.R. Richards Gym.
The Cougars (17-0), now ranked 13th in the state, played nothing short of high-caliber basketball. They moved without the ball. They set screens. They cut to the basket. They played defense.
And they made it look easy.
“They did a good job being patient,” Ventura head coach Ann Larson said of her players.
Larson also credited her team’s dominant offensive performance to disabling Santa Barbara’s defensive post play – which she says has been a thorn to Ventura’s side in years past.
“We made their post defense work tonight,” said Larson.
Senior guard Maddie Fahan led the Cougars with 18 points — most coming from slashing lay-ups to the basket. Fahan also had four steals, six rebounds and a block.
Senior forward Kristen Wilson followed with 13 points on 3-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc and shot a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
On the opening tip-off, Santa Barbara (15-5, 2-1) was able to take an early 4-0 lead by forcing three turnovers in the first two minutes. But it didn’t take long for the Cougars to sniff out the schemes of Santa Barbara’s full-court press.
“One of the things we do best is that we’re able to adapt to other team’s play and counter that,” said Fahan.
Santa Barbara failed to score until the final minute in the second quarter on a jumper from Rebecca Griffin. Griffin finished with 18 points.
“They’re good, but you at least have to show up and we didn’t show up,” Santa Barbara head coach Andrew Butcher said.
Santa Barbara turned the ball over 19 times while Ventura committed just 10 turnoverd.
The Dons will take on the Oxnard Yellowjackets on Saturday at the Buena Shootout. Ventura will host Buena (10-7, 4-1) at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
