Elia Salazar recorded season highs with 18 points and 14 rebounds on Saturday night, leading SBCC to an 85-79 victory in its WSC North women’s basketball debut at the Sports Pavilion.
Salazar, a 5-11 sophomore forward, hit 8-12 from the field and had 10 offensive rebounds. Mhiah Vickers added 12 points and six boards for the Vaqueros, who won their third straight to improve to 9-6 and 1-0.
“We had a lot of synergy and energy tonight,” said Salazar. “Even when we turned it over a couple of times, we never put our heads down. It was a great team effort.”
Keiona Mathews scored 21 of her game-high 28 points in the second half for Canyons (7-10, 1-1).
The Vaqueros were playing their first game in two weeks but didn’t look rusty as they jumped ahead 8-2. The Cougars rallied to take a 13-10 lead before Santa Barbara went on a 13-0 run and took a 23-13 advantage on a 15-foot baseline turnaround by Vickers.
SBCC stretched the margin to 17 points (45-28) on a 3-pointer and layup by Andrea Morales before settling for a 13-point halftime lead at 45-32. Canyons scored 98 points in its first WSC game and Mathews had a school-record 45 points.
“We match up really well with them because we both like to fast-break,” said SBCC coach Sandrine Krul. “In the first half, we had 29 rebounds and 16 offensive. And we had 13 assists.
“We played 14 of 15 players. We played hard and we played together. This was our best team victory.”
Darla Morales added 11 points and four rebounds off the bench for SBCC, which outshot the Cougars 50 to 40 percent and won the rebound battle 53-36.
Canyons got within five a couple of times in the second half but each time, the Vaqueros had an answer. Ashley Oliver scored four straight to pull the Cougars to 74-69 with just under six minutes remaining. But Darla Morales knocked down a 16-footer and Sylvia Hoover-Puter hit two free throws to expand the lead back to nine.
The margin shrunk to three points with two minutes to play before Salazar took over. She made a free throw, then hit a left-handed follow shot with 22.2 seconds left to make it 85-79. She sprinted to the other end and blocked a Canyons’ shot out-of-bounds, securing the victory.
SBCC has two road games next week – Wednesday at Moorpark and Saturday at Cuesta.
