Cold shooting and 29 turnovers weren’t the recipe for success on Sunday as SBCC fell to Mission 81-70 in the third-place game of the Mission women’s basketball tournament in Santa Clara.
Imelda Bealer scored all 13 of her points in the second half for the Vaqueros (1-2), who trailed 35-27 at intermission. Bealer also had six rebounds, five assists and five turnovers.
SBCC won the battle of the boards 50-37, including 24 at the offensive end, but the Saints prevailed in shooting, 41.1 to 29.3 percent.
Janelle Wong had 12 points and nine rebounds (six offensive) while Leslie Steele scored 12 on 4-8 shooting from 3-point country. Brooke Berry contributed five steals in the second half.
“We trailed by 15 in the first half, then cut it to three (57-54) with 7:48 to play,” said coach Sandrine Krul. “We came out of a timeout and turned it over five straight times, leading to a 9-0 run by Mission.
“We’re playing hard but self-destructing at the wrong times. We‘re missing a few players but we learned a lot in this tournament.”
Santa Barbara makes its home debut on Saturday with a 5 p.m. game against Sequoias.
