San Bernardino Valley built a 46-25 halftime lead on Saturday afternoon at the Sports Pavilion and went on to defeat SBCC 80-56 for the championship of the fourth annual MTXE Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The Wolverines, ranked No. 5 in Southern Cal, shot 43 percent and outrebounded the Vaqueros 52-36 to improve to 5-1.
Brooke Amenta led SBCC (4-3) with 17 points and Imelda Bealer added eight points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Santa Barbara hit just 27 percent and committed a season-high 37 turnovers.
“You can’t turn it over against good teams,” said coach Sandrine Krul. “They’re going to capitalize. But this was a good learning experience and we played hard the whole game.”
Bealer was named to the all-tournament team along with Ariel Meek of Grossmont, Amanda Deal of Orange Coast and tourney MVP Paige Haynes of San Bernardino Valley.
Orange Coast topped Riverside 63-54 for third place and Grossmont beat Solano in the consolation final, 80-63.
Nanice Kollee had eight points, six rebounds and four assists for the Vaqueros, who trimmed the deficit to 11 points with two minutes to go before committing seven straight turnovers.
SBCC will host Bakersfield on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
