Something just wasn’t right with the Cardinals on Friday.
The Bishop Diego Cardinals, that is.
Playing at a neutral site (Carpinteria High) in a boys basketball CIF play-in game, Bishop turned the ball over 23 times and fell to the Cardinals of Santa Paula, 51-32.
Bishop Diego’s Paul Garcia (photo by James Sinclair)
“I think our performance speaks for itself,” said coach Slash Vazquez dejectedly. “It just looked like they played harder.”
Bishop still has a good shot at making the playoffs with an overall record of 14-12, including a 6-1 mark against opponents in Division V-A.
“It’s not getting in that I’m worried about, it’s whether we’ll be ready to play if we do get in,” said Vazquez.
Noah Tack and Elias Munoz each had seven points, and Tack had nine rebounds. Kyle Holland had four points and seven boards. Vazquez said Munoz “never looked right” because of a sprained ankle he suffered against Grace Brethren on Wednesday.
Holland drove the lane and made a nice dish to Tack for a lay-up that cut the Santa Paula lead to 24-18 at the beginning of the second half, but Bishop started giving up easy buckets inside to an athletic Santa Paula (9-18, 5-5) squad, which proceeded to go on a 10-2 run.
The lead would grow to as big as 23 before the final whistle. Eduardo Jimenez scored 15 for Santa Paula while Antonio Rios chipped in 14.
SANTA PAULA 51, BISHOP DIEGO 32
SANTA PAULA — Correa 7, Casas 6, Rios 14, Aguilar 5, Kleil 2, Jimenez 15. Totals 20 8-19 51.
BISHOP DIEGO — Tisdale 2, Slaught 5, Holland 4, Speier 5, Muñoz 7, Tack 7, Ramirez 2. Totals 13 3-932.
Santa Paula…14 8 15 14 — 51
Bishop Diego…10 6 7 9 — 32
3-point goals — SP 2 (Rios, Jimenez), BD 3 (Munoz, Speier, Slaught).
