Citrus took the lead with a 15-1 run early in the second half on Friday night and went on to beat SBCC 63-50 at the SBCC Crossover women’s basketball tournament.
After trailing by 10, the Vaqueros (5-7) went on a 9-0 run and pulled within a point, 42-41, on two free throws by Leslie Steele with 8:49 to play. The Owls (8-3) responded with a 16-4 burst to stretch the margin to 58-45 with 2:19 left.
Freshman forward Elia Salazar hit 7-of-8 field goals and tossed in a season-high 18 points to lead SBCC. She also had nine rebounds. Brianna Barfield scored 15 of her 23 points in the second half for Citrus.
“We’re going to take this morale victory and build on it,” said Santa Barbara coach Sandrine Krul. “We had Sara (Crane) playing point guard for the first time this year. She handles the ball great and really makes us go. Elia got in the starting lineup and scored 18 points.”
Crane collected seven points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two blocked shots. Steele added seven points.
Citrus outshot the Vaqueros 52 to 25 percent in the second half. SBCC made 33 percent for the game and missed all 12 of its 3-point tries, including 0-9 in the second half.
Santa Barbara took a 24-16 lead when Crane set up Salazar for two straight layups with 4:20 to go in the first half. The Vaqueros led 26-22 at intermission.
In Friday’s first game, Barstow improved to 10-3 with a 51-37 win over Sequoias.
The round-robin event concludes on Saturday. Citrus will meet Sequoias at 1 p.m., followed by SBCC against Barstow at 3 p.m.
