Santa Barbara High sank four 3-pointers en route to a 14-0 start and never looked back in rolling to an 84-36 basketball blowout over Lompoc in Monday night’s second semifinal of the Santa Barbara Holiday Classic at J.R. Richards Gym.
Jad Dahnke and Bolden Brace each scored 13 points off the bench and Isaiah “Rat” Tapia knocked down four 3-pointers for 12 points to lead the 11-1 Dons into Tuesday night’s championship game against Newbury Park at 7:30 p.m.
Newbury Park got six 3-pointers and 18 points from Jake Briggs and Kevin Russell knocked down five treys en route to 17 points as the Panthers ran away from Camarillo, 65-50, in the other semifinal game Monday.
In other action Bishop Diego routed Channel Islands, 63-30, and Carpinteria beat Santa Maria, 63-55, to set up a third meeting between the local rivals in the fifth-place game at 3 p.m. Bishop Diego won the two prior meetings.
Lompoc and Camarillo will square off for third place at 6 p.m.
Santa Barbara held Lompoc scoreless until 3:16 left in the first quarter and romped to a 22-2 lead at the end of the quarter. Noah Burke and Tapia started the game with 3-pointers, Jack Baker scored inside and Tapia and Andrew Fay knocked down two more treys for a 14-0 run to start the game.
Coach David Bregante said the players made it a point to play better than they did in Saturday night’s win over Carpinteria.
“I think the kid were disappointed in the way we played (Saturday night). I don’t think we came out with a lot of energy. I think the kids wanted to do a little better tonight. Lompoc, we felt, was a better team we were playing and we came out ready to go.”
The Dons did a good job sharing the basketball as they totaled 29 assists. Chris Wagonhurst led the team with five, while Burke and Baker each had four.
Torey Sims led Lompoc (5-4) with 12 points.
Baker had a nice line for Santa Barbara with nine points, eight rebounds and seven blocked shots in less than three quarters of playing time.
The Dons stretched their lead to 29 points (31-2) early in the second quarter when Brace knocked down back-to-back treys and Eli Hale hit one from behind the arc.
Santa Barbara will take on a senior-laden Newbury Park team that jumped on Camarillo early. The Panthers roared out to a 19-9 lead and contained Camarillo’s talented point guard Jacob Alonzo, holding him to 14 points.
“They’re very good, they’re better than a solid team,” Bregante said of the Panthers. “They beat a real solid team in Camarillo. They just took it to them.”
