Somogyi explodes in 30-30 game for Breakers

Seven-foot center Greg Somogyi, a former player at UCSB, collected 33 points and 33 rebounds in his second game with the Santa Barbara Breakers

A record-breaking night from Greg Somogyi steered the Santa Barbara Breakers to a dominating 108-89 victory over the Hollywood Beach Dawgs.

With the win, the Breakers improve to 2-0.

In just his second ever game with Santa Barbara, Somogyi tallied a phenomenal 33 points, 33 rebounds, and four blocks. The 33 boards easily broke the previous Breaker record of 22.

“With Somogyi, I’ve known all along that this is what he’s capable of doing,” Head Coach Curt Pickering said. “You see how Bynum with the Lakers is taking those big aggressive steps and that’s what is going to happen here [with Somogyi]. Last week he had 10 points and 10 rebounds and this week he had monster numbers.”

Santa Barbara began the game on fire, jumping out to an early 10-0 lead, which became a 36-16 lead at the end of the quarter, their largest lead of the game.

“We came out with the mind frame that we wanted to get the game over with and not let anybody hang around,” Tim Taylor said.

Hollywood stole the momentum in the second period though, outscoring Santa Barbara 29-16. The Beach Dawgs, led by Jelani Hicks with 10 points in the quarter, tallied four treys, finding success driving and kicking for threes.

“They’ve got a good system of basketball with the penetration and kicking it out for the three,” Somogyi said. “That’s what hurt us because it was hard to rotate to the next guy and they hit the shots.”

After halftime, neither team took control. While Santa Barbara played a big line-up, the third quarter belonged to the guards. For the Beach Dawgs, Jordan Block found his stride, tallying 10 points. For the Breakers, it was Taylor who took control, scoring nine points, nearly half of the team’s total in the third quarter. Taylor finished with 24 points.

Hollywood continued to chip into Santa Barbara’s lead to begin the final period and quickly found themselves down just five at 76-71 after Roman Hane scored five quick points.

“Give credit to [Hollywood] because they never quit,” Pickering said. “It came down to the fact that defensively we didn’t allow them to shoot threes with our large line-up. [Offensively], Taylor created the drives to the basket and then we were strong inside.”

Santa Barbara’s size did wreak havoc. Tip-ins from Phil Johnson and Somogyi sparked a 9-3 run, giving the Breakers a comfortable double digit lead, which was never relinquished. The Breakers outscored the Beach Dawgs 36-23 in the final quarter.

“The key is that we have a 7’3’’ guy. Greg played big…real big,” Taylor said. “I also think our defensive intensity picked up. At one point it was close and then all the sudden we were up by like 20.”

Santa Barbara resumes play next Saturday against the Long Beach Rockets. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. at San Marcos High School.

BOX SCORE

SANTA BARBARA BREAKERS  108  HOLLYWOOD BEACHDAWGS  89

SBBreakers    MIN    FG     3’S     FT     REB      AST ST  B   TO   PF  PTS

John Clarke     37     3-9     1-4     2-2     0-5-5     7     1    0     2     4     9

Greg Somogyi 39     16-24 1-1     0-0   11-22-33 0     1     4     5    4     33

Phil Johnson   32      2-4     0-0     1-4    2-12-14 1      1     1     1    0     5

Jason Obrien  19      1-5     1-4     0-0     2-4-6     3     1     0     1     0     3

Stan Fletcher   34     5-10   0-2     5-7     2-3-5     3     5     0     2     2     15

Jerry Dupree    39     7-24   2-4    2-2     5-3-8     3     1     0     4     2     18

Tim Taylor       40      7-18   3-7    8-8     1-3-4     5     1     0     5     5     25

Breaker Totals 240  36-94  8-22  18-23 25-53-78 22 11   5     20   17   108

Hollywood    MIN    FG     3’S      FT     REB     AST  ST  B   TO  PF   PTS

Josh Deanne  31     2-8     1-2     0-0     1-6-7     1     5     1     2     3     5    Cal Baptist

Jordan Block  40     12-31  1-1    4-6     5-5-10   3     3      1    3     1    29    N/A

Ronald Neezy 35    6-20    3-5    2-4     4-7-11   4     2      0     1     1   17    LA Tech

Jelani Hicks    38    7-20    3-7    0-2     1-1-2     2      1     0     4     3    17   SW Baptist-MO

Roman Hare  38    4-19    1-3    0-1      4-1-5     2     2      0     3     2    9     CalST Dominquez Hills

Allan Dane     26    1-3      0-0    0-0     0-5-5     0     0      0      2     2    2     Paris CC

Ryan Gosslyn 29   3-13   0-0    4-6      1-3-4      2     2      2      3     5    10    SB CC

Bdawg Totals 240 35-114 9-18 10-19 20-28-48 14  15    4     18   17   89

Breakers     36     16     20     36   —  108

BDawgs      16     29     26     18   —   89