SBCC drained 14 3-pointers on Wednesday night but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 91-77 men’s basketball loss to Hancock in a WSC North opener in Santa Maria.
Trace Yager, a 6-3 freshman, scored a season-high 16 points with six rebounds for the Vaqueros (4-9, 0-1). Rico Failla had 14 points, including 3-6 on 3-pointers. The Vaqueros shot 52 percent from long distance (14-27) and 42.4 percent overall.
Demetrius Thomas topped Hancock (14-6, 1-0) with 25 points and eight boards. The Bulldogs hit 56 percent from the field (37-66) and 5-13 from the 3-point line.
The Vaqueros knocked down 8-16 from downtown in the opening half and rallied from an eight-point deficit to trail by one, 37-36.
A basket by Yager cut the deficit to four (60-56) with 10:40 to play but Hancock took control with a 20-3 burst that pushed the lead to 80-59.
“We committed three turnovers vs. their full-court pressure during that run,” noted coach Morris Hodges. “Two other problems were we didn’t stop their dribble penetration and we missed some chippies close to the rim.”
After a bye on Saturday, SBCC travels to No. 16 Ventura for a 5 p.m. game on Wednesday.
