San Marcos struggled to make baskets and wound up on the short end of a 34-30 boys basketball decision against Ventura on Tuesday night at the Thunderhut.
The loss drops the Royals to 5-6 in Channel League with one game remaining against league champion Santa Barbara on Thursday night. They need a win to avoid falling into a tie with Buena at 5-7. The Bulldogs own the tiebreaker, having won two of the three meetings with San Marcos.
San Marcos started well, opening up a 13-6 lead in the first quarter. Then the shots stopped falling. The Royals made only five field goals in the final three quarters and went scoreless in in the third period.
Bryce Ridenour led San Marcos with 12, while Elijah Johnson added nine points and Scott Everman five, all in the first quarter. Ventura was led by Dustin Houck and Bryce Fausset with nine points apiece.
It was a physical contest.
“There were very few fouls called in the game; this did not resemble a basketball game,” San Marcos coach Dave Odell said.
One call that was made ended up hurting the Royals. Down by three points with under a minute to play, Scott Everman was called for an illegal screen.
“I was shocked by the call,” Odell said. “I didn’t see what the ref thought he saw.”
