Mhiah Vickers posted the first double-double of her SBCC career on Saturday night, leading the Vaqueros to an 83-63 women’s basketball win over L.A. Southwest and the title of their own Bash by the Beach.
Vickers, a 5-11 redshirt freshman from Westlake High, racked up 23 points, 11 rebounds and seven steals. Sophomore Sara Crane scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half and also produced five assists and six steals.
The Vaqueros (2-0) only made 32 percent from the field but it was lights-out from the charity stripe as they knocked down 32 of 38 for 84.2 percent. Vickers was 11-12 and Crane made 7-9. Southwest (1-1) struggled from the free-throw line, making just 14-32 (44 percent).
The Vaqueros trailed 18-17 late in the first half when Coach Sandrine Krul went with a full-court press that turned the game around. After falling behind 7-0 at the outset, the Vaqueros finished the half on a 13-6 run to take a 30-24 lead.
“We have a bad habit of starting out slow, but the good thing is we always pick it up and come back even harder,” said Vickers. “I think we have the potential to be great, better than any team that’s been here. Our goal is to go to state and get as many wins as we can.“
In two tournament games, Vickers collected 43 points, 20 rebounds and nine steals.
The Vaqueros opened the second half with a 12-3 burst and stretched the lead to 42-27 on a three-point play by Crane and two free throws by Michelle Herrera. They expanded the margin to 18 points, 61-43, at the 9:44 mark on four free throws by Vickers, sandwiched around a tough leaning bank shot by Keia Nobles.
Nobles narrowly missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Sharar Ali-Clarke had 10 points and four steals, Brooke Amenta had seven of her eight rebounds in the opening half and Zoe Echternacht grabbed six rebounds.
“We won this game at the free-throw line (making 18 more than Southwest),” said SBCC coach Sandrine Krul. “We can full-court press and half-court press effectively. But we’re turning the ball over too much.”
The Vaqueros had 24 steals on Saturday but also committed 32 turnovers. They forced the Cougars into 38 turnovers.
Fullerton rallied to win the third-place game over Glendale 61-52. The Hornets erased a 10-point second-half deficit with a 35-16 run over the last 14 minutes.
SBCC will host another tourney on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They open the eight-team MTXE tourney on Thursday against San Diego Mesa at 7 p.m.
MTXE is the Vaqueros’ mantra and stands for “Mental Toughness Extra Effort.”
