The tallest player on the court made the biggest play for the Orange Lutheran girls basketball team in the title game of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Saturday night.
Down by one with 18 seconds to play, 6-foot-1 Sydney Jacobs picked off a Bishop Montgomery pass at midcourt and fed a slashing Jami Hahn for the deciding basket in a 46-45 victory at J.R. Richards Gym.
In the third-place game, Santa Barbara came up short against Channel League rival Ventura, 51-46. Dos Pueblos lost in the 11th-place game to Bell-Jeff, 40-33. The consolation title went to St. Bonaventure, which held Rio Mesa’s high-scoring Ashley Ontiveros to seven points in a 40-35 win.
In the Green Division, Menlo blew out San Marcos 65-19 and Santa Ynez edged Providence Hall 33-32.
Bishop Montgomery still had a chance to claim the championship after the Lancers missed the front end of a one and one. With seven seconds to go, the Knights quickly passed the ball up court to an open freshman Kate Tokuhara on the left side. Her shot, however, bounced off the rim and the buzzer sounded as the teams battled for the rebound.
The Lancers, the tournament’s top seed, improved to 11-0. No. 2 Bishop Montgomery fell to 9-2.
Orange Lutheran’s defense played a key part in the win. In the fourth quarter, the disciplined Lancers took away the drives to the basket by Bishop Montgomery guards Dani Lee, Nao Shiota and Sophia Song.
The Knights took a 40-35 lead early in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer Christine Delapina. Orange Lutheran responded with a Jacob basket off an Abbey Goodsell assist and a 3-pointer by Goodsell to even the score at 40.
Tournament MVP Jessica Salottolo converted a one-and-one to put the Lancers in the lead at 42-40 with 3:54 left.
Song drove the lane and scored to tie the score for the Knights before Jacobs came back and hit two free throws to put the Lancers back into the lead at 44-42.
Delapina drove into the key and earned a three-point to give Bishop Montgomery its last lead, 45-44, with 1:44 left in the game.
After a couple of missed scoring opportunities, Jacobs came up with her huge interception that led to the winning basket.
Jacobs finished as the game’s high scorer with 18 points.
Delapina scored 12 points and Chelsea Lidy added 10 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked four shots for Bishop Montgomery.
Ventura 51, Santa Barbara 46
Several missed layups and free throws cost the Dons (8-4) in the third-place game.
Santa Barbara trailed 39-30 going into the fourth quarter and had a chance to pull to within one in the last two minutes. Down 49-46, Dessy Coleman picked off a Ventura pass at midcourt and fed a teammate for a layup, but the Dons couldn’t convert.
Santa Barbara missed a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left and couldn’t come up with a rebound after Ventura missed a free throw. The Dons fouled Marki Meyer of the Cougars and she hit both free throws to put the game out of reach.
Santa Barbara shot 11 of 22 from the free-throw line, while Ventura sank 10 of 16.
Meyer scored 17 points and Kai Irby added 16 for the Cougars (9-4).
Santa Barbara’s Ivette Gil led all scorers with 19 points. Freshman Jada Howard added 9 points and Coleman and Melissa Lemus each scored seven points.
All-Tournament Team
The MVP was Jessica Salottolo of Orange Lutheran.
Members of the team were Ivette Gil (Santa Barbara), Ashley Ontiveros (Rio Mesa), McKenna Hill (St. Bonaventure), Sarah Bucknovitz (Oak Park), Nikki Wheatley (Bonita), Marki Meyer (Ventura), Dani Lee (Bishop Montgomery), Jami Hahn (Orange Lutheran), Sophia Song (Bishop Montgomery).
