Dos Pueblos didn’t have its best night shooting free throws, but the Chargers made up for the shortcoming by playing tough defense and rebounding, and they pulled out a 41-40 win over Santa Barbara in an intense Channel League boys basketball game before a packed house at Sovine Gym on Friday night.
The Chargers made just 9 of 21 from the free-throw line and Mansai Conner, who had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, missed eight free throws. But the senior made one, and that turned out to be the game-winner. Conner’s make came with 2:41 left in the game.
“I think it was just nerves. It was a loud gym,” said Conner, who hustled to rebound some of his misses or make a steal. “When you miss a free throw you have to make up for it at the defensive end.”
“Mansai is the most athletic kid we have in our program,” DP coach Joe Zamora said. “He’s a kid we want to shoot the ball; we want him to get to the free-throw line. Coach P, my assistant, was joking that he used to lose bets to him on free throws. We’ve never seen him miss that many free throws. We’re glad he got it out of his system tonight. You notice when he misses a free throw he’s the first one to make a steal.”
Mansai Conner of Dos Pueblos goes up against Santa Barbara's Angel Lopez, Emilio Gonzalez, and Andy Busch to score two of his 12 points. (Vince Agapito photo)
Santa Barbara had plenty of time retake the lead and win the game, but the Dons threw the ball away on one possession, missed a shot on another and missed a chance at another possession when Conner rebounded his own missed shot.
“Forty points is our lowest total all year,” Santa Barbara coach David Bregante said. “Of course, they’re a good defensive team. You got to give them some credit. They did a good job defensvely. We had too many fumbles and we haven’t been rebounding well. We gave up a lot of second shots again.”
Santa Barbara gave itself another chance to win, scrambling on defense and forcing DP into a shot-clock violation with 25 seconds left in regulation.
With the Chargers doing a good job of closing off the low post, the Dons passed the ball on top to guard Matt Wagonhurst. He drove down the top of the key, made a nifty spin move and squared up for a 12-foot jumper in the lane with nine seconds left. The shot fell off the rim, Conner grabbed the rebound, passed to Gerry Perez and DP called time out.
The Dons fouled Chris Williams on the inbound pass with 2.1 seconds left and Williams missed both free throws. Santa Barbara rebounded and called time out to set up one last play. The Dons threw a long inbounds pass but it was knocked away, and DP celebrated its first Channel League win while handing Santa Barbara its first league loss.
The loss came two days after a double overtime win over San Marcos.
Bregante said his team might have been a little emotionally drained going into Friday’s game.
“Maybe,” he said. “It’s possible. It was big win for us Wednesday. It did two things: I think we were a little bit mentally exhausted from that, and the second thing it did is it fired them up.”
Wagonhurst hit a 3-pointer that tied the score at 40-40 with 2:57 to go. He finished with nine points.
Sam Cohen led the Dons (7-8, 2-1) with 12 points, with eight coming in the first half.
The win was a huge boost for DP (4-8, 1-2), which was coming off a loss at Ventura.
“We told the guys if we went back to work after the Ventura game, if we took care of the ball and played really good defense that we could do a good job,” Zamora said. “My kids really stepped up. It feels really good to beat a crosstown rival.”
SANTA BARBARA — Wagonhurst 9, Lopez 3, Busch 9, Cohen 12, Mikles 1, Gonzalez 5, West 1.
DOS PUEBLOS — Williams 12, Conner 12, Mertens 5, Zajic 5, Wopat 2, Perez 5, Vickers 2.
Santa Barbara…9 7 16 8 — 40
Dos Pueblos…10 11 12 8 — 41
3-point goals—DP: Williams 2, Conner, Perez. SB: Wagonhurst 3. Total fouls—SB 17, DP 15.
Go Dons!