SBCC nearly erased a 13-point deficit in its WSC North men’s basketball opener Wednesday night but couldn’t overcome 68 percent second-half shooting by Moorpark in a 98-92 setback at the Sports Pavilion.
Mike Meza, the top scorer in the WSC, hit 10-12 from the charity stripe and led the Raiders (9-6, 1-0) with 23 points. David Lane, the conference’s No. 3 scorer, topped SBCC (4-11, 0-1) with 22 points and seven rebounds.
Moorpark shot 17-25 (68 percent) in the second half while outscoring the home team 53-50. SBCC, which dropped its fifth straight, shot 42.6 percent for the game.
“Our defense was very poor,” said coach Morris Hodges. “We allowed them to penetrate to the basket and didn’t step up. We had a number of opportunities to take some charges but we didn’t do it.”
Steven Saenz scored all 15 of his points in the first half, hitting 5-of-7 from downtown. He nailed three triples in a row in the early going, staking the Vaqueros to a 17-10 lead. Moorpark turned things around and took a 45-42 advantage after 20 minutes.
Chris Vines had a solid all-around game for Santa Barbara with 15 points, nine rebounds and five steals. His tip-in at the 14:26 mark gave SBCC its only lead of the second half at 56-55.
The deficit grew to 70-62 with 10:25 to play and then 13 points, 84-71, after a 3-pointer and two free throws by the Raiders with 6:05 remaining. Vines ignited a 15-5 SBCC burst with four straight points and Lucky Teeguarden had seven points in the run. His driving basket on the right side with 2:11 to play cut the deficit to 89-86 but Santa Barbara never got any closer.
“They made some crucial threes (6-8 in the second half) and caught us in a rotation a few times,” noted Hodges.
SBCC was 10-37 from beyond the 3-point line with Lane and Teeguarden combining to make just 1-13.
The Vaqueros will travel to L.A. Pierce (Wednesday) and Ventura (Saturday) next week.
