After falling behind by 20 at halftime on Saturday night, SBCC staged a furious rally thanks to some hot 3-point shooting but still came up short to Cuesta, losing 81-75 in a WSC North men’s basketball contest at the Sports Pavilion.
Cuesta (15-9, 2-1) hit 7-13 from 3-point country in the opening half and broke open a close game with a 25-4 run that produced a 46-23 lead with 1:18 to go in the first half. The Cougars, who had five players in double-figure scoring, led 48-28 at the break.
Rico Failla tallied 13 of his 16 points in the second half for the Vaqueros (4-11, 0-3), who shot 66.7 percent after intermission, including 6-8 on 3-pointers. Failla was 3-5 in the second half from downtown and 4-8 for the game.
Trace Yager finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for SBCC, which prevailed in both the shooting (49.1 to 48.4 percent) and rebound battles (39-33).
The Vaqueros committed 13 of their 19 turnovers in the first half.
“We were only down 24-21 with 10 minutes to go in the first half, then we hurt ourselves with turnovers,” said coach Morris Hodges. “A lot of those were unforced turnovers and they led to transition baskets for the other guys.
“We showed great effort in the second half and were able to generate some things off the press and turn the momentum around.”
Logan Louks added 15 points and six boards and Anthony Petrilli had 14 points and four assists for Santa Barbara, which opened the second half on a 13-4 run.
The Vaqueros got within four, 61-57, on a triple by Failla at the top of the key and a twisting layup and free throw by Petrilli with 9:18 to play.
Cuesta regained control by hitting two straight 3-point buckets. Plamen Hristov, a sophomore from Bulgaria, led the Cougars with 19 points and was one of three players with three treys.
“The hole was a little too deep for us to come all the way back,” Hodges added. “We had four guys in double figures and we were missing a couple of key guys.”
Pablo Miranda missed the game with an injury and Michael Hansen played about eight minutes in the first half before sitting out the second stanza with the flu.
SBCC travels to L.A. Pierce on Wednesday for a 5 p.m. game.
