Sara Crane had a big night with 14 points, 13 assists and five rebounds on Saturday but SBCC still came on the short end of a 65-60 women’s basketball decision to Cuesta at the Sports Pavilion.
After falling behind 11-0 and 16-4 at the outset, the Vaqueros (8-12, 2-3 WSC North) battled back and finally took the lead at 58-57 on a long jumper from the corner by Shannon Abdulla with 4:10 to play. A layup by Crane on an assist from Mercedes Gonzales put the home team ahead 60-59 with 1:56 showing.
The Vaqueros didn’t score again, however, missing three shots (including two 3-pointers) on their second-to-last possession.
“We had three steals at the end and three turnovers,” said coach Sandrine Krul. “That says it all. We were playing hard and we did a good job of fighting back.”
Leslie Steele had 13 points and four steals while Elia Salazar had nine points, 14 rebounds and three steals. Gonzales had four of SBCC’s 19 steals.
The Vaqueros were outshot 43 to 34 percent and struggled from the 3-point line (2-15). SBCC pulled within four, 34-30, when Abdulla banked in a 13-footer to beat the halftime buzzer.
Cuesta didn’t make a field goal in the last six minutes but pulled away by hitting 8-of-13 free throws. Trailing 61-60, the Vaqueros had the ball with 53 seconds left but threw it away.
“When opportunity knocks, you have to open the door,” said Krul. “We showed a lot of fight and we’ll take the moral victory. I‘m happy we played with passion, now we have to get back to execution.”
The Vaqueros will complete the first round of conference play on Wednesday when they travel to L.A. Pierce.
