The Santa Barbara Breakers suffered their first loss of the season Saturday night to the Long Beach Rockets 122-114.
The Breakers drop to 2-1 while the Rockets improve to 3-1.
Santa Barbara took control of the game first on a 12-0 run spurred by transition baskets and the play inside from Greg Somogyi. The result was a 27-20 lead for the Breakers entering the second quarter.
“The key to our play in the first half was our big man,” Stan Fletcher said. “We were feeding him and getting shots from that.”
However, within two minutes of the second period, the Rockets erased the Breakers’ lead. The turning point occurred with 3:39 remaining in the half when Somogyi picked up his seventh personal foul. While league rules say a player cannot foul out, the Rockets received a technical foul shot and the ball for each foul Somogyi committed after his sixth foul.
Somogyi’s foul trouble came from battling down low with Tony Farmer, who previously played for the Golden State Warriors. Farmer went straight at Somogyi and while the Breakers kept Farmer below his average of 18.5 points per game with 16, he scored 12 points in the first half.
“That was a great learning experience for him,” Head Coach Curt Pickering said. “He has to learn to be disciplined. That wingspan can be to his advantage when it’s vertical, but when it goes horizontal, whether he touches them or not, the referees are going to call it.”
With Somogyi on the bench, the Breakers were forced to play with a small line-up. The situation also wasn’t helped by the fact that Santa Barbara was already short-handed, playing without big man Phil Johnson and Zach Marbury.
“Not having Phil really hurt us,” Pickering said. “If we had had two or three more players that I know want to play for us, I’m confident we could’ve won because we were doing well until the last four minutes of the second quarter and then we started taking jump shots.”
Long Beach finished the half on a 12-4 run and took a 60-55 lead into the second half.
The Rockets dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Breakers 35-22. For Long Beach, CJ Johnson and Theron Laudermill took control, combining for 20 of the team’s 35 third quarter points.
“The second half, we didn’t play with any intensity,” Fletcher said. “We weren’t rebounding, boxing out…we were giving them free lay-ups, and-one on one lay-ups and we didn’t play with any heart.”
While Laudermill finished with 21, Johnson especially killed Santa Barbara with 38 points, 23 more than his average.
“[Johnson] hurt us in every kind of way, Pickering said. “He was penetrating to the hole, making three point-shots, and playing defense. He even intimidated some of our young guys, getting in their heads.”
Down 18 entering the final period, the Breakers finally woke up and made a run. They cut the lead down to single digits with the help of 14 fourth quarter points from Arnette Hollins. Unfortunately for Santa Barbara, the effort came too little too late.
“He was penetrating and then hitting open jumpers,” Pickering said. “They didn’t want him driving, so they backed off and he hit the jumpers.”
The biggest highlight for Santa Barbara was the play of Fletcher, who finished with 36 points. Hollins also tallied 26 points.
The Breakers resume play next Saturday against the High Desert Spartans at San Marcos High School at 7:05pm.
