Richard Somdah made a driving layup with three seconds left on Wednesday to give SBCC a thrilling 79-78 men’s basketball victory over Rio Hondo at the Hancock Tournament in Santa Maria.
Somdah, a 6-3 sophomore forward, had a career-high 27 points and 10 rebounds in the consolation semifinal. Chris Vines added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists for the Vaqueros (4-10), Tony Hawley had 10 points and seven boards and Steve Saenz contributed eight points and four rebounds.
After leading 42-37 at the half, SBCC put together a 21-6 burst, stretching the margin to 20 (63-43) with 14 minutes to play.
Rio Hondo answered with a 19-0 run and took a 78-75 lead with 1:12 to play. Somdah made a shot to cut the deficit to one with 33 seconds left. The Vaqueros came up with a steal with 0:22 remaining, then missed a shot and got the ball out-of-bounds under their own hoop with seven seconds to play.
That set the stage for Somdah’s game-winner.
“Our energy and enthusiasm were really good,” said coach Morris Hodges. “After being up big, it was nice to see the guys make some plays down the stretch.”
SBCC will take on third-ranked Saddleback (14-3) for the consolation crown on Thursday at 1 p.m.
