If opposing teams don’t get back on defense quickly against the Santa Barbara girls basketball team, the Dons will make them pay.
That’s just what happened on Wednesday in an opening-round game of the Gold Coast Classic at the San Marcos Thunderhut. Santa Barbara beat St. Joseph down court several times for easy layups and scored an 83-75 victory over the Knights.
Ivette Gil scored 29 points to lead three players in double figures, and the unbeaten Dons (4-0) made 30 of 49 shots, including 20 of 26 in the second half when they expanded a 34-27 halftime lead to 62-41 on a 3-pointer by Dessy Coleman.
“We’re a transition team,” Santa Barbara coach Andrew Butcher said. “The first three games we’ve scored in the mid to high 70s, so we trying to get the ball down court before the team sets up. We’re not big, so we tried to avoid half-court offense situations.”
The times the Dons had to play a half-court game, point guard Melissa Lemus made things go with drives to the basket and dish-offs to teammates for easy shots
Lemus scored 16 points and had 10 assists.
“She is an outstanding high school basketball player, and she can be one better guards we’ve had at our school” said Butcher. “This young lady has the potential to control the game, if she can just understand the turnover thing.”
Lemus said the fact she and her teammates have played together for a long time is a plus when playing an up-tempo game.
“We’ve been playing with each other so long that we just know each other’s game. We know each other’s cues,” said Lemus.
St. Joseph had trouble handling the powerful Coleman. She finished with 19 points and started many of the fast breaks with long passes.
Freshman Jada Howard added nine points for the Dons.
Kaitlyn Flowers poured in 28 points and Tatiana Dunlap scored 24 points for St. Joseph.
The Knights made a run at the Dons early in the fourth quarter until they ran out of gas.
Butcher was pleased with the result against a quality opponent.
“We played a tough team, we played an uptempo game and we were able to play the tempo the whole time,” he said.
